


Your Highness!

by Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall



Series: For the Love of Honey and Mori! [2]
Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-16 07:01:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 58,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall/pseuds/Guardian_of_the_4th_Wall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it is announced that Haruhi is a Princess, Honey pledges to be her servant, and Kyoya is trying to marry Haruhi knowing that it's not exactly her choice who she will wed, it's her Grandfather's. All while Tamaki is just trying to keep the love of his life. Seeing her distressed, Honey sacrifices a great deal to see her happy including leaving the love his own life miserable...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Hasuakuzon Style!

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: All rights of this show and it's characters belong to the original creator and companies associated with Ouran Host Club. I make no profit from any of this. It is purely for fun.

Groaning from the sound of banging on his door he reached over for the alarm clock, tilting it so he could see the time.

6:03am

"Haruhi, could you get that," he groaned. Then he realized. Haruhi wasn't here. That's right; she had gone to study abroad in the U.S. That's where his little girl was right now. Sitting up he stretched, the relentless but non-panicked knocks continued. "You'd think after three or four they'd go away…"

Opening the door Ryōuji Fujioka growled an annoyed, "Yeah?"

The sight that met his eyes was surprising. Four large men in suits were standing outside his door, and directly in front of them was what an appeared to be a seventeen year old boy. He looked like he could have easily been a member of the Host Club that his little girl had been a part of. The teen was certainly handsome enough, and his clothes looked so expensive. His hair was jet black and he looked to be about the same height as the twins had been (when they last came over a few months prior).

"Can I help you?" he asked scratching at his barely visible beard which always itched horribly before he got dressed up to shave it.

"Yes," the boy said smiling. "I was wondering if you were the man who married this woman?"

He held up a picture. Ryōuji glanced down at it. It was his Kotoko wearing an exalted outfit from her Zuka club days, he reached out taking the picture from the boys hand with such speed that boy gasped and Ryōuji felt an iron strong hand clamp onto his wrist. Ryōuji winced from it.

"Please," the boy said to the man and he let go.

Glaring suspiciously at the boy he looked more closely at the photo, "Yes, this is my Kotoko…"

"I see," the kid said smiling. "Then could you please tell me… Did you and this Kotoko ever bare a child together?"

"You mean Haruhi?" Ryōuji said frowning. The kid's eyes widened with mild surprise and then a soft grin split across his face.

"So… it's true then. May I speak with this… Haruhi?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not…" Ryōuji said. "She's currently studying abroad in America, but more importantly… How do you know my Kotoko?"

The boy smiled, "I don't."

He looked up at his silent companions, "We're leaving."

With that he turned and began to walk down the outdoor corridor. Only Ryōuji rushed out after him. "Wait! How do you know my—"

Suddenly his arm was twisted behind his back and he thrown to the ground with great force, much more force than the man had used when grabbing his wrist earlier. "No one runs up on the young master!"

"Leave him be, Hasuru…" the boy said without so much as a backwards glance. "We don't need to cause trouble with my future father-in-law now do we?"

The large man known as Hasuru released him, and Ryōuji pulled himself up into a sitting position. "Future father-in-law… what are you talking about?"

The kid didn't stop, but Ryōuji took the steps two at a time to meet him at his limo. "WAIT! Just what are you talking about!? Future father-in-law!?"

"Don't worry Father," he said smiling. "When I find her, I will invite you to the wedding."

Without another word he climbed back into his limo. Ryōuji didn't dare run up to the door, that Hasuru guy was big and scary! When his lackeys got in the car as well and they drove off, Ryōuji immediately took out his cell phone trying his daughter, he noticed a bruise already forming on his arms from where the man had pinned him.

* * *

"Remember, the first one who grabs their phone has to buy lunch for everyone!" Tamaki said smiling. "This is a commoner's way of deciding who picks up the check…"

Him and the other members of the currently (non-existent) host club were sitting in restaurant booth enjoying a rather elaborate dinner. It was honestly nice having them all together. Though Haruhi hadn't expected it. When she decided to go to the US to study, she thought it would be just her. Then Tamaki decided to come, and after they got here. The next thing she knew the whole Host Club showed up! Despite her surprise and despite the fact that she had been looking forward to time alone. She was having a lot of fun. Haruhi, who had just taken a bite of her burger, looked up as her phone started to vibrate.

"Uh…" she slowly reached for it.

"Ah, Haruhi," Tamaki said smiling his classic smile. "Remember the rule…"

"But it might be my Dad calling," she said.

"Reeeeally," the twins chimed together. "You mean you have the money to pay for all of this? Including Honey-senpai's cakes, which is a pricey feast on its own..."

She glared across the table at Honey-senpai who was onto his fourth rather expensive cake. She immediately withdrew her hand frowning.

"And thus, let the games begin," Tamaki said wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. Suddenly Kyoya's phone began to ring as well.

"Ah… will you lose Kyoya?" Tamaki asked smiling.

"Hardly," Kyoya said taking a sip of his drink.

Next, the twin's phones went off… then Mori's… then Honey's…

"Isn't a little weird that all our phones went off so suddenly? I think someone is really trying to get ahold of us…" Honey said frowning.

"Then will you lose Honey-senpai?" Tamaki asked smiling.

…and then… his phone went off. His expression fell and curious sort of boyish look came over his face. "You know… it… might be mother. Or father… or grandmother…"

He suddenly got a panicked look on his face, "What if something happened to Antoinette?"

"Antoinette's back at home remember? We brought him with us," Haruhi said killing his dilusion.

"Then what if something happened to Grandmother… You think she's sick? Maybe Mother took ill again. Or maybe Father was in a car accident," he said looking horrorstruck. "I GOT TO KNOW!"

He grabbed his phone with tears in his eyes? "Hello!? Grandmother!? Father!? Mother!? Are you okay?"

"We got a free lunch! We got a free lunch!" chanted the twins together happily.

"What?" Tamaki gasped. "Yes, Haruhi is with me…"

"Who is it?" Haruhi asked looking up at him.

"You're Dad," he explained before turning his attention back to the phone. "Sir, I'm putting you on speaker phone, hold on…"

"…and don't let Haruhi out of your sight for a moment!" Ryōuji nearly shouted.

"Dad what's going on?" Haruhi asked nervously.

"A bunch of thugs came to our house looking for you Haruhi."

"What?" Haruhi gasped.

"Rich thugs too! They might be Yakuza I don't know, they showed up and manhandled me… Lousy little… but they knew your Mother. They showed up here with a picture of her and asked about you!"

"Haruhi? Are… are you in debt to the Yakuza?" Tamaki asked seriously.

"Of course not!" Haruhi snapped.

"Was your mother in debt to the Yakuza?" Hikaru asked, sounding panicked but it seems to be more for the reason of making Tamaki look worried than actual concern.

"Of course not!" he father spat from the phone.

"What did they say they wanted Miss. Ranka?" Kyoya asked straightening his glasses as he did do.

Almost as if this caused a switch in his brain he brought out his overly feminine voice when he next spoke. "Oh, they didn't seem to be here for a debt. No, the boy that was with them seemed to be implying that he was here to marry Haruhi."

"Marry!?" they all (but Haruhi and Mori) gasped together.

"I wanted you to be on your guard and stay safe. They seemed rich so I can assume they could afford a tickets to the US."

"But… why me?" Haruhi said thinking…

"I don't know, but stay safe and call me every night sweetie! Get the cops to camp out at your place if you have to," he said.

"Fear not honorable Father," Tamaki said happily. "Anyone who wants to marry Haruhi will have to go through me! I will protect Haruhi with my life!"

"Not to mention we got Mori and Honey here and they are pretty much as good as an army," Hikaru explained.

"Don't worry Haru-chan's Daddy, we'll protect Haru-chan," Honey explained.

"Ahh," Mori nodded.

"I am so glad Mori and Honey are there to protect my little girl when I cannot… Thank you boys!"

"You're welcome!" Honey said taking another bite of cake.

"I… I said I would protect her too!" Tamaki pointed out staring down at the phone he had placed in the center of the table so everyone could hear him.

"As I said!" Ryōuji snapped. "I am very glad that Mori and Honey are there!"

"Dad, I'm sure this is a misunderstanding…" Haruhi said nervously looking at the despondent expression on Tamaki's face. "If these people show up we'll just explain I'm obviously not who they think I am."

"If you say so Haruhi, but you call me every night mind!" he said. "I gotta go to work now. Daddy loves you!"

With that the dial tone sounded. Haruhi sighed.

"You think it's a case of mistaken identity then?" Kaoru asked.

"What else could it be?" Haruhi asked. "I can't imagine anyone would want to marry me having never met me…"

"Well, regardless," Kyoya said patting his mouth with a napkin before getting to his feet. "It seems our King is paying the bill this time."

"Wha!?" Tamaki gasped as everyone got up to leave.

"I wouldn't want to be paying for this meal, thanks milord!" Hikaru said throwing his arms behind his head as they walked to the exit.

* * *

Back at Haruhi and Tamaki's apartment they were all staying. Even though they all had apartments in the building, Mori-senpai had mentioned that if someone was looking for Haruhi then it would be safer if they were there in the same room.

So they were all camping on the sofa or little futons.

"Guys this hardly necessary," Haruhi said dully looking at how cramped they all were there.

"I understand why Mori and Honey are camping here, but why are you two delinquents here?!" Tamaki snapped pointing at the twins.

"Hey, if we're all camping out here then why do we have to be left out?" Kaoru asked frowning from his futon on the floor.

Kyoya had been on his computer since they got back.

"Did you find anything Kyo-chan?" Honey asked looking over his shoulder.

"Well, I got the surveillance footage from Haruhi's building, but it's rather blurry… Unfortunately the camera that took this seems quite old and even video enhancements didn't seem to help too much. But I got the video of what happened with Haruhi's Father."

They all crowded around the screen as they watched the teen and four body guards approach Haruhi's door. After a few minutes of knocking the door opened, but they couldn't see Haruhi's father at first. As the men began to leave Ryōuji took off after them reaching his hand out to stop the guy only one of the men, with impressive speed and strategic movement, he had swung Haruhi's father around before pinning him to the ground.

At that moment Honey and Mori exchanged glances, which no one else noticed.

Then the four men and the well-dressed kid took off in a limo with Ryōuji standing there looking rather dumbfounded, and he pulled out his cell phone as he walked back into the house closing the door behind him.

"That's where it ends," Kyoya said closing his laptop.

"It's a mistake," Haruhi explained. "It has to be, even blurry. That guy didn't look familiar at all."

"Even so," Tamaki said gallantly. "We have to make sure nothing happens to Haruhi men!"

All the club members of the club lined up like they were ready for a fight saluting him. It brought back Host Club memories, and Haruhi laughed, "You guys, seriously. I'm sure this isn't a big deal! It's late and we got class tomorrow..."

"She's right men! Let's sleep in a circle and have Haruhi furthest from the door. It'll be safest that way, and tomorrow someone will always accompany Haruhi as she goes about her day!"

"Ugh…" Haruhi sighed. As always, the host club was taking things too far…

* * *

Camped out in the living room with the furniture pushed against the walls so as to make room they were all sleeping, or so Haruhi thought. When one of the twins let out a particularly loud snore Haruhi woke up, and groaning she started to cover her ears with her pillow, however, she had glanced up mid-motion and noticed something moving by the light of the window. It was Honey-senpai, who was seated on the windowsill looking out. Bun-bun in his arms…

Haruhi was just about to look up and ask him what he was doing when a soft beeping sound came from their little group. In an instant Mori had shut off the alarm on his wrist watch. It was so soft; she couldn't believe it had woken him up. He climbed out from under his covers walking over to Honey-senpai.

"Mitsukuni," he said softly, and Honey looked up. His eyes were determinedly focused. It was scary when Honey's eyes got like that. But they softened immediately upon looking up at Mori. Haruhi covered her pillow above her head pretending to not be awake.

"Shift change then?" he asked smiling hopping down from the window sill.

 _Shift change_? Haruhi thought… _Were… were they really that worried_? The other Host Club members never mentioned taking shifts, did Mori and Honey not tell them...

Honey started walking over to his futon when Mori's voice called him back, "Mitsukini."

He stopped turning back to him, and Mori put his hand underneath his chin tilting his head up he kissed him softly. Out of surprise, Haruhi let out a small gasp and quickly covered her mouth.

( ) ( ) (#) ( ) ( )

They pulled apart at the noise and Honey smiled at her. She could only just make out his face from the moonlight that came in through the window. Walking over he crouched down in front of her putting his finger to his lips and whispering, "Shhhh."

He climbed under the covers of the futon to her left. The idiot Tamaki was in the futon at her right and seemed fast asleep. Looking slightly crestfallen (though again, how can you really tell? It's Mori), Mori took the place on the windowsill where Honey had been. Honey fiddled with his own watch for a bit and then glanced at Haruhi who was still looking at him.

"Honey-senpai," Haruhi said whispering to him. "Why are you guys taking shifts?"

Honey smiled at her before placing a hand on her head. "Don't worry Haru-chan. We won't let anyone hurt you."

"But…" she began only Honey put his finger to his mouth again. "Shhh… it's sleepy time now."

With that he rolled over curling up with Bun-bun, she glanced up looking at Mori who smiled at her. Frowning she curled up under her covers falling asleep as well.

* * *

Come morning every one of the Host Club members had messages from their parents on their phones. While none of them were worded in quite the same way, they all stated similar messages. Kyoya was the first to notice the text message order from his father, which read:

_It would be in our Family's best interest for you to wed Haruhi Fujioka. Make it happen._

* * *

Yawning Kaoru sat up checking his phone, and to his surprise his mother had left him a message which read:

So, whichever one of you (I can't remember which) that had the crush on Haruhi. Try to make it work. Just found out some juicy info, and it would be really great if you could make it work with her. I've already got the prettiest wedding dress in mind!

"What?" he said rubbing his eyes. He was sure he had read it wrong. Kyoya was already wide awake and typing on his computer. Hikaru rolled over looking up at his brother questionably.

"What is it?"

"Mom is talkin' about you marryin' Haruhi now…" he said tossing him his phone.

"What!?" Hikaru sat bolt up grabbing the phone from the covers where it had fell and reading her text over.

"Hhhmm…" Honey said looking up from his pillow. "My Dad texted me about marrying Haruhi too…"

"WHAT!?" the twins exclaimed together crawling over to confirm Honey wasn't lying.

"How can Honey-senpai marry Haruhi? He's too short to marry Haruhi! Everyone knows the guy is supposed to be taller than the gir—."

Mori turned his phone around for the twins to see. He too had a similar message… "But you're too tall!" the twins snapped together.

"Okay… this is too freaky… I think it would be easier now to count the number of people in this room who wasn't instructed to marry Haruhi," Hikaru sighed.

"Well," Kyoya said as he typed away. "If we assumed Tamaki got one, then the total would be none."

"Wait? Your parent's told you to marry Haruhi too?"

"Yes, that was the general message…"

"Ugh, this is nuts! None of our parents cared in the past about Haruhi and now all of a sudden they're all interested in her?" Hikaru snapped looking quite annoyed. "What the hell is going on!?"

Meanwhile, Haruhi was as sleep on her futon. Tamaki had (at some point in the night) snuggled up close to her, and the two were currently holding hands while sleeping.

"Aw, aren't they cute," Honey-senpai said smiling at them and yawning. Mori glanced over at him but said nothing.

"Milord," Hikaru snapped kicking him lightly. "Get up we got problems here!"

"Ow!" Tamaki snapped opening his eyes, "What?"

Haruhi woke up from the noise as well. "Good morning…"

She opened her eyes looking around noticing that everyone was staring at the two of them. Looking down she noticed that they were holding hands. Blushing, the two of them broke apart.

"Look alive you two, we got serious problems here!" Kaoru snapped.

"Oh?" Tamaki blinked. "What?"

"Before we say anything milord, check your phone…"

"My phone?" Tamaki reached into his pocket pulling it out. "Oh, hey… My Grandmother texted me…"

"Uh-huh…" Hikaru frowned folding his arms.

Suddenly Tamaki's face suddenly lit up. He suddenly took Haruhi's hands in his own smiling. "Good news Haruhi! My Grandmother approves of us and has given us her blessing! She has suggested that we get married!"

"Uh…" Haruhi hesitated.

"Yeah, that's what we thought…" the twins said together. "We all got similar messages."

"My Grandmother texted all of you about my and Haruhi's engagement?" Tamaki asked blinking.

"No boss" Hikaru sighed. He couldn't get over what an idiot Tamaki could be sometimes. "We all got messages from our parents that we should do our best to ensure our own marriages to Haruhi."

"Whoa, wait? What?" Haruhi blinked looking worried. "Why?"

"That's the question isn't it?" Hikaru said frowning.

"I'll text Mother and ask," Kaoru said taking the phone back from Hikaru.

"Don't bother, I've already figured out why. And I doubt we'll be the last ones asked to try for her hand too," Kyoya explained fixing his glasses on his face.

"What!?" The twins rushed over to Kyoya both trying to see his computer screen.

"Back up!" Kyoya said sighing pushing them back. "It seems, an announcement was made a few days ago. The King of Kishon believes that Haruhi is the descendent of his daughter Princess Koriko Tokari Korokawa."

"Huh!?" Haruhi gasped. "What? Why?"

"It seems his only child ran away at seventeen never to be seen again. However, when his counsel claimed that he should abdicate his throne he refused to do so on the grounds that his daughter was out there somewhere and that the throne belonged to her…" Kyoya explained. "The counsel then swore to find her alive or dead to prove to the King that she was gone and he should turn the throne over to them. After what appears to be months of searching they finally tracked the Princess down…"

"You mean…" Tamaki said. "They think Haruhi is this Princess Koriko…"

"Don't be stupid," Kyoya snapped and Tamaki frowned. "They think her late Mother Kotoko was actually Princess Koriko. Since she is dead, and if we assume this news is true. That would make Haruhi the only living heir to the throne of a large and wealthy country..."

"Wha!" Honey-senpai gasped turning to Haruhi. "You're a Princess Haru-chan?"

"No of course not!" she snapped. "This is a mistake! If my Mother was a Princess, I'm sure she would have told us. Besides that, Mother was poor in her childhood. She worked her way up from nothing to become a good lawyer. She always said so…"

"Poor huh…" the twins said together. "If she was so poor, how is it she has all that Zuka club memorabilia?"

"Huh?" Haruhi glanced back at them…

"That IS damning evidence," Kyoya said thoughtfully contemplating the idea.

"Why?" Haruhi asked looking up at the twins, who were smirking.

"Lobelia Academy is just as much a reputable school as Ouran is…" Hikaru pointed out.

"Costs just as much too. You'd have to have pretty high standing to attend there…" Kaoru explained.

"Maybe… she got in on a scholarship… like me?"

"Well… there is a record of Princess Koriko attending until her seventeenth year… Never even finished," Kyoya explained. "However there is no record of a Kotoko though, and the pictures of her are even more damning…"

He turned his screen around revealing a girl in Zuka club regalia, who was unmistakably her mother. Haruhi walked over to the screen. "That's my Mother alright…"

"Wrong, that's from Princess Koriko's days in the Zuka club…"

"Ugh… I don't understand. If this is true… then… why didn't she tell me…"

"Haruhi…" Tamaki said softly getting to his feet.

"This explains who that guy must be, he must be the one looking to take the throne, but now that Haruhi's in the picture he has to marry her to get it…" the twins said together in a classically harmonious nature.

"That also explains why we all got those texts from our parents. I assume other Ouran students probably got similar messages from theirs. What member of aristocracy wouldn't want the chance to marry off their children to a Princess and have royal standing added to the list of titles present in their family?" Kyoya said folding his arms contemplating.

"Haruhi," Tamaki exhaled again, since he was clearly being ignored. His eyes hadn't left the back of her head where she stood staring at her Mother's picture. "Haruhi, you know what this means don't you?"

"…" she turned to him blinking.

"You're a Princess Haruhi! All this time!" he rushed over hugging her like he had done the first day she was a part of the Host Club, and he spun her around happily. "I can't believe it! A genuine Princess! Don't you worry Haruhi! We'll protect you from all those other suitors and I as your one and only Prince Charming will see to your every need!"

"Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi said frowning. "Don't jump the gun here. We don't have any proof! Where is this country anyway?"

"Kishon is a large island country in the Pacific Ocean. Their main exports are oil, diamonds, and gold…"

"That's quite the trinity…" Kaoru and Hikaru said to eachother frowning.

"In addition to the main island their country owns many neighboring islands. Most of which are used for tourism or personal getaways for the royal family and government officials. They have a rather large army, with a handful of secret service agents who are trained in the way of Akuzon…" Kyoya stopped reading at that word glancing up at Honey and Mori. Honey placed a finger to his lips, and thus Kyoya didn't say anything…

Having not noticed anything Tamaki suddenly released Haruhi and spun around. "Alright men! We have an honest to God Princess to protect! We shall see her to school to ensure this stranger doesn't steal her away and whisk my Haruhi off into a forced marriage!"

"Wait!" Haruhi snapped. "Nothing has been confirmed. I'm sure… there is a reasonable explanation for all of this!"

* * *

Regardless, twenty minutes later Haruhi found herself being escorted to her classes for the day.

"Seriously, you guys don't have to walk with me," Haruhi said in an annoyed tone. For Tamaki, Mori and Kaoru were following her to her class.

"Well we go to the same school," Kaoru explained. "So it would really be hard not to follow you. Except for Mori…"

Haruhi glanced up to him. "It's fine…" he said. "I wanted to come."

Frowning in a very usual way she rested her chin on the books she was carrying. "You guys keep making a big deal out of this and I don't really understand why…"

"Some crackjob is trying to forcefully marry you, and you're saying you don't understand why…" Kaoru explained.

"You don't know he's trying to forcefully marry anyone. Maybe he's just gonna ask me. That is if we assume I really am who he's looking for. Besides, in today's day and age you can't forcefully marry anyone," Haruhi explained. "If this guy shows up I'll explain I have no plans to marry anyone right now…"

Tamaki who had been protectively walking while holding Haruhi's free hand stopped in his tracks when she ran out of arm length to walk away, she turned to him questionably.

"Tamaki-senpai?" she asked staring up at him.

"No…plans… To marry anyone…" he said. He looked like he was about to slip into his little depression state he used to fall into at the Host Club.

"Well…no," she answered him, and Tamaki looked like he was losing strength, his expression faltering.

"Milord," Kaoru said frowning. "Could you hold it together until we get our Princess to school?"

"Please stop calling me that…" Haruhi sighed.

"What do you mean…no plans…" he sighed…

"Senpai, either walk with me or let go of my hand so I can keep walking to class," she said groaning. Ever since she and Tamaki had started dating she had gotten even more used to his antics. However, many times (such as the case of now) she still found it quite annoying…

Mori walked up forcing their hands apart he placed his hands on Haruhi's shoulders physically making her walk forward.

"Ugh!" This had seemed to awaken Tamaki from his stupor and he rushed forward. "Uh… Mori-senpai? That's not really necessary…"

"We need to keep walking," he explained with his stoic expression never changing.

"Mori-senpai?" Kaoru said hurrying forward. "What's wrong? You're acting strange…"

Haruhi looked up at him. Though his expression was very much as it always was, there was an emotion to the eyes that he didn't often have… One of worry…

"Senpai?" she said raising an eyebrow.

"Here we are," he said after a minute or two. Sure enough, they had finally arrived outside her school building.

"Alright my Princess," Tamaki said. "You get to class and I'll meet you for lunch!"

Though Tamaki had ensured that he was attending the same school as she, they were still in different grades and therefore didn't have classes together. Despite the uproar he had made at the class registration office.

"Uh…" she glanced up at Mori again as though waiting for some confirmation to his actions, though he simply started at her. "Alright then… See you guys at lunch…"

"I'll walk with you to class!" Kaoru said smiling. He however, had managed to get the same schedule as her. Hikaru though, had chosen to go to a different school for his study abroad. It was still in the area but he had told Kaoru he thought it would be too hard seeing Haruhi every day at school as well as seeing her every day back at home.

"HEY! DON'T YOU PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND MY PRINCESS!" Tamaki snapped, for that is just what Kaoru did as the two hurried into the building. Mori walked over to a picnic table where he laid down on the bench seat looking up at the sky…

* * *

Haruhi was in the first row of her French class and next to the window. Tamaki had made her take this elective because he said it would be so romantic if the two could speak a language that was just for them. Kaoru, who was only taking the class because Haruhi did and wasn't actually willing to learn the language, was understandably bored.

"Hey Mori didn't go to his University…" he said looking out the window. Haruhi who sat just in front of him glanced out and noticed Mori laying on the bench outside the school.

"Why is he still here?" she questioned.

" _Are you two paying attention_?" asked their French teacher Madame Malken in perfect French.

"Ugh, Oui…" Kaoru said grinning.

Haruhi buried her face in her book. She wouldn't have been surprised if that was the only word he knew.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late."

Mori opened his eyes to see Honey crouching on the school wall that he was climbing over. He jumped down as Mori sat up.

"She's in class now huh?"

"Yeah."

"You can head out then," Honey said yawning.

"Mitsukuni, you look tired…"

"Just a little bit," he admitted. "I was too afraid to fall back asleep last night because I know how hard it is for me to get up from a nap and I didn't want to sleep through their attack."

"…"

"You should hurry to your class so you don't get in trouble. You can't go skipping school at the University level. You'll ruin your gpa," Honey said as he stifled another yawn.

"When we get back, you're taking a proper nap," Mori told him.

"Okay," Honey said sitting on the bench Mori had gotten up from.

Mori ruffled his hair before heading out, and Honey's eyes narrowed dangerously once again.

* * *

"Honey-senpai? What are you doing here?" Haruhi asked as she, Tamaki, and Kaoru went outside to eat their lunches.

"I came to have lunch with you!" he said happily in his classically childish way.

"Did you even bring a lunch?" Kaoru asked.

"Uh… no," he said smiling. "But Mori packed the lunches today… Haruhi you have your lunch right?"

"Uh, yeah of course," she said pulling it out of her bag. It was the bento box Mori had packed for her. Since they had come here, Tamaki had thought it would be fun for everyone to take turns packing lunches for everyone else. Since there were seven of them, they were all assigned a day of the week. Tuesdays were Mori's day.

"Look under it," Honey said smiling.

She noticed her bento today had two compartments; the bottom compartment had another packed bento. That one had a rice ball in the shape of a bunny head, some meat, and a cupcake.

"That one's for me!" Honey said smiling. "I had an early class so I had to leave before Mori could give it to me."

"I see, here you go then," she said handing it to him.

"You sure that one's for you Honey-senpai?" Kaoru asked. "There is meat in it."

"Yup, Mori and I made a deal. I can have as many sweets as I want as long as I eat the same amount in meat and vegetables," he explained.

"I see, but he didn't budge on the whole bun-bun situation…" Tamaki asked smiling.

"We agreed that I could bring him once every three days," Honey explained and then pouting slightly he added. "Today isn't the day I can bring him…"

"Oh, I'm sorry Honey-senpai…" Haruhi said frowning.

"So... I'm gonna walk you home today okay, don't go back without me alright," Honey said as he began eating.

"Look, you guys don't have to be following me… Mori was even waiting outside the building for a bit…"

"He was waiting for me," Honey explained. He had eaten his cupcake first. "He has afternoon classes, and I only had the one morning class today."

"That doesn't really explain why he was waiting. Couldn't he have met you somewhere other than our school? If you're doing this to protect me you don't have to when I'm in the school. It's not like this guy is going to barge right into my class or something."

"Well, I have nothing better to do, so I'm gonna wait out here if that's okay..."

"…" she looked at him. "Senpai? What's going on? I'm getting the feeling you're not telling us something…"

"Huh?" Honey-senpai blinked. "Well, you're a Princess right? Like Tamaki said we should be protecting you."

"That's right Honey-senpai!" Tamaki exclaimed making Haruhi sigh again. Great, he got him going on that again… "I always said you were our Secret Princess… and now you really are!"

"Tamaki!" Haruhi snapped looking rather annoyed. Her expression reminding him so much of the old Haruhi.

"I'm kidding," Tamaki explained throwing an arm around her he pulled her close. "We'll get this whole situation sorted out soon. So don't you worry... Princess or not, we will be here for you!"

"If it turns out you are a Princess, you should let our Mother design some dresses for you," Kaoru explained.

"Trust me it won't… It can't be…" she said. Just the idea that her mother could have had such a life and not told her made her more than a little upset.

* * *

"Ugh!" Hikaru sighed as he sat with Mori on a bench outside Mori's university. "I mean, I get it! She picked Tamaki! But somehow her possibly being a Princess makes her cuter and stupid Tamaki-senpai keeps flaunting their love. Now Ma's wanting me to end up with her… And clearly I can't. I mean… This whole situation just pisses me off…"

Mori was sipping his drink listening to him. He laid down on the other end of the bench scowling at the sky.

"Speaking of which… What are you gonna do?" he looked up at Mori.

"About?"

"Didn't your parents ask you to try for Haruhi too?"

"Yeah. But I can't do anything unless Mitsukuni requests it…" Mori explained.

"So, you're saying if Honey-senpai told you to marry Haruhi you would?"

"Yeah."

"…" Hikaru sat up. "So, you will just do whatever he tells you? No matter what?"

"Yeah."

"I get the whole, your family used to serve his thing, but don't you think there should be a limit to that?" he asked frowning.

"I pledged my hands to him. Thus I serve him unconditionally…"

Hikaru took a bite of his sandwich. Contemplating it, "What does that mean?"

"It means you give your mind body and soul to another person. You agree to follow them blindly, and protect them at the cost of your own life if need be. It's an unbreakable and silent contract. You serve as their sword when needed; you become their shield when necessary. This is an unbreakable bond that clan members initiate with one another or when honor bound or in return of a debt."

"Unbreakable?" he raised an eyebrow. "So you mean you're bound to Honey-senpai? Out of curiosity… your bond or whatever… Did you want to obey him? Or do you have to obey him? I mean… I get that your family was in service to his a long time ago and you obey him out of respect to that… but did you want to… what did you call it? Pledge hands? Did you want to do that or did your parents or someone make you?"

"…" Mori frowned. "I wanted to…"

"Ah," Hikaru sighed turning back to his food and took a drink of his soda.

"Mitsukuni didn't…"

Hikaru who hadn't been expecting that stopped drinking to stare at him. His expression revealed nothing however…

* * *

Yawning, Honey-senpai held on to Haruhi's jacket so he wouldn't get left behind while they walked back to the apartment.

"If you're that sleepy, why did you wait outside the school? If you had no more classes today, you coulda just went home and took a nap."

"I'm okay," he said smiling.

"Maybe some cake would wake you up," Kaoru suggested.

His face suddenly lit up. "Yeah!"

"Let's stop by that place we went yester—" Tamaki began only the screeching of Tires suddenly met their ears as three black cars skidded to a halt encircling them in front of the garden wall they were standing in front of.

"Must be that guy," Kaoru pointed out. "Guess we're going to finally see who he is…"

"Guess so…" Tamaki sighed folding his arms a slight smirk on his face.

Clearly neither of them was worried. They were with Honey-senpai, and this was the guy who had taken out the Otori personal police force with little effort after all… Looking at her friends, Haruhi thought it was strange that the only one who looked worried… was Honey…

"Haru-chan," Honey said softly. "Stay behind me please…"

She blinked at him, "Honey-senpai…"

He took two steps forward to be in front of her.

The car on the far left opened and a man got out. He wore a suit and dark glasses and was bald. Walking to the middle car he opened it and a kid stepped out. He had black hair and brown eyes and was wearing black slacks with a white shirt. He had on a tie but it was undone hand hanging loosely from his shoulders.

"Hello," he said smiling. "Sorry for encircling you like this but… I didn't want you to run off…"

He took a few steps forward. "My name is Keishin Ashiro. I am the son of a nobleman from Kishon. Now, I am sure you must have heard by now, but we believe you are the daughter of our former Princess and I have come to take you home. Also, I would like to respectfully ask for your hand in—"

"My name is Tamaki Suoh," Tamaki exclaimed walking up to him with his hand outstretched. Only the guy in a suit blocked him.

"Please keep your distance from the young Master," the man said staring down at Tamaki with a look of disgust.

"Uh… alright," Tamaki said looking around the body guard. "Um… Anyway. I'm Tamaki, and I'm not sure exactly how all this came about, but I'm currently dating Haruhi. So… if anyone is going to be asking for her hand then—"

"You're dating her…" the kid said frowning. "No, that doesn't work into my plans at all."

"Well too bad!" Kaoru said glaring he walked up to stand with Tamaki. "Haruhi is currently on a study abroad trip so she can't really go anywhere anyway…"

"Yes... I am aware of that…" the kid said. He bypassed his body guard and started walking towards Haruhi. Tamaki made to stop him only the body guard grabbed both him and Kaoru holding them back.

"Hey let go!" Kaoru snapped trying to kick the guy.

"What are you—" Tamaki growled.

"Pardon me Princess," he said ignoring the struggles of Kaoru and Tamaki as he stood before her.

"Listen, let them go!" Haruhi snapped. "I'm not going anywhere right now, and I'm not marrying anyone anytime soon. I'm sixteen."

"I'm seventeen," Keishin said smiling. "But that doesn't matter. In our country people can marry as young as fifteen. Now, if you'll come with me I promise to have you back here by Monday at the latest. I am sure an official decree from our King will be enough to excuse your absence from school."

"I'm not going."

"Princess," he said sighing. "Please be reasonable. Your Grandfather has waited a very long time to meet you, and it would just break his heart if I returned home witho—"

"She's not going," Honey said bluntly looking up at him. "She said she doesn't want to go."

Keishin knelt down looking at Honey-senpai and he smiled. "And who are you little boy?" he asked.

"Mitsukuni Haninozuka," he answered in the same dull tone so unlike the cheerfully happy voice they were all so accustomed to.

"Hani…nozuka…" he repeated and then a smile split across his face. He stood up. "Oy! Hasuru, I think you'll find this kid interesting…"

The door of the third car opened and a tall muscular man stepped out. He had a blond head and beard, bushy eyebrows, grey eyes. Tamaki and Kaoru stopped struggling to stare at the guy, he looked so menacing…

"My, it's been years little Mi-chan!" he said grinning. "You haven't grown up at all…"

"Ojisama…" Honey said acknowledging him, but barely.

"How has your Dad been then?"

"He's fine."

It was odd, Honey-senpai was responding in a similar manner that Mori would. Short and quick sentences. Though Honey's responses felt rather cold...

"Oh good," Tamaki said smiling nervously. "They know each other."

"I don't think it's as good as you think…" Kaoru said and turning back to the man holding them. "Will you let us go already!?"

"Hasuru," Keishin said looking up at him. "I want Haruhi to come with me, but I don't think this kid is gonna let that happen…"

"Don't worry about him," Hasuru said. "As I recall Mi-chan was always rather unskilled when it came to the family fighting technique. I was his first teacher after all…"

"Oh shit…" Kaoru said stopping again in his struggles when he heard that. "That… can't be good…"

"You don't think this guy is stronger than Honey-senpai do you?" Tamaki asked frowning he too had given up trying to get out of their captor's embrace.

"…uh…"

"The Princess is coming with us Mi-chan. Step aside so you don't get hurt," he placed his hand on Honey's head lightly pushing him to the side. It looked for a second like he was about to fall from the push but instead he knelt down jumping up and kicking him in the back of the neck. His uncle was thrown forward into the garden wall behind him. He threw out his arm to stop his face from running into brick.

Haruhi gasped. Honey's expression was in full on fighting mode…

"So…" Hasuru said getting to his feet again he turned. Apparently unhurt, "You've learned a bit after all…"

Honey's eyes flashed quickly in Haruhi's direction before he lunged forward. Wrapping an arm around her waist he lifted her off the ground, and ran along the garden wall in an arch and landed before Tamaki and Kaoru. He let go of Haruhi and she fell onto the ground just as he jumped up and kicked the guy holding Tamaki and Kaoru causing him to let them go, and they two fell to the ground. With a spinning kick he sent the guy flying at his uncle and landed on the ground with all three of his friends behind him. All of this he did in the time span of a few seconds.

"Honey-senpai?" Haruhi gasped.

"You three, stay behind me," he ordered.

"You really have learned a bit…" his uncle said grinning. "I have pledged my hands to the Korokawa Family, and by decree of the current King of Kishon, he wants his Granddaughter to come home. So don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're my nephew."

"That's never stopped you before," Honey answered glaring at him.

Hasuru grinned walking towards him and Honey brought his fists up preparing for him.

"Uh… if this guy was Honey's first trainer shouldn't we be more worried?" Tamaki asked getting to his feet and helping Haruhi up.

"Yeah... maybe it's time to call Mori…" Kaoru said taking out his cellphone.

CRASH! Kaoru jumped when a shuriken went through his cellphone.

"Eeee!" he gasped. Turning he saw the Hasuru guy holding another.

"This is between my nephew and me… I'll thank you to stay out of it..."

"Now… how's that arm of yours doing? Last time I saw you, I believe I had just broken it…"

"Let's find out," Honey answer and lunging forward he sent his fist flying into the side of his face. Haruhi was reminded of the time Honey's little brother had asked to see him and immediately begun a battle. She thought their fight would be like that. Only it wasn't. This fight appeared as though they were legitimately trying to hurt each other. Punches and kicks flying. Honey (being so small) was easily dodging everything. Until…

"AHHHhh!"

Honey's uncle had grabbed his arm and pulled it violently behind his back. They all heard a sickening crack. He let go and Honey spun around in an effort to kick him, but it was blocked easily. Honey was no longer dodging as well as he had been before. The pain in his arm clearly messing him up… Bringing out a knife his Uncle lunged at him and Honey dodged the first swipe, but the second cut his shirt and Haruhi saw a small gash on his stomach. The blood was soaking through his shirt as he landed back. Honey looked… tired…

Another lunge forward, but his Uncle saw it coming and the man's foot collided with Honey's chest knocking the wind out of him and sending him flying back onto the pavement.

"Honey-senpai!" his friends shouted from the side lines.

"Stop it!" Haruhi snapped stepping a few steps forward. "Isn't Honey-senpai your nephew? Why are you trying to hurt him like this!?"

"Why not? If he were stronger he wouldn't be hurt. Now would he? It's not my fault if he lacks training and skill."

Gasping slightly Honey looked up at him.

"I got a good 30 years of study on you in the Haninozuka technique. You'd better stay down for sake of your health kid…"

"This clearly isn't a fair fight!" Haruhi snapped.

"Haruhi," Tamaki snapped throwing an arm around her. "Calm down… we'll reason with them."

Honey sat up and spat a bit of blood on the ground. Kaoru had run over to help Honey but he had climbed back up onto his feet all on his own. "I told you three, to stay back."

"Honey-senpai…" Kaoru said nervously.

"Stay back," Honey commanded. "That's... *gasp* ...all I need you to do."

His uncle laughed loudly. "You're still going to fight me? Please… The Princess will be coming with us. I suggest you step back before I really decide to hurt you."

"You know… Princess," Keishin said smiling. "Perhaps you will come for _just_ this upcoming weekend. School won't be in session during that time so it won't interfere with your studies. We'll be holding a ball in your honor to announce to the world we found you again."

"If I go, will you leave and stop attacking Honey-senpai?" Haruhi asked looking furious.

"Of course," he said smiling.

"Fine then!" Haruhi snapped. "I'll go."

"Haru-chan…" Honey said breathing hard. "I'm fine. You don't want to go to their country trust me, they—"

"Shut up Mi-chan," his Uncle snapped. "This doesn't concern you!"

Honey's eyes widened slightly as though an idea had come to him. He stood as tall as he could and despite being hurt, and bloodied with a broken arm and a shoulder that didn't seem to be in its socket quite right. His unbroken arm wrapped around his chest which seemed to be hurting him. He glanced back at Haruhi as though considering her for a moment. Then he smiled, this sudden idea seemed to give him a sense of strength and the appearance of being taller and more threatening that he normally appeared.

Then, in a strong voice he proclaimed, "I pledge my hands to the eldest daughter of Princess Koriko Tokari Korokawa!" he exclaimed.

His uncle's eyes flashed for a moment, "Do you understand what you're doing?"

"I think I understand better than you do," Honey retorted.

"Fine then…" he said and the man turned his gaze to Haruhi who still looked quite nervous. "This is a nice little weapon you've just acquired Princess."

Haruhi blinked. What did he mean by that?

"Well then, let's see how well you can protect her—"

"Not now," Keishin said frowning.

Honey's uncle stopped looking back at him. "Why not?"

"We have made a deal with our Princess, we stop in exchange for her coming to our Ball. We won't be starting off on a good foot if we don't fulfill our first promise to her..." He turned to Haruhi.

"My Lady, I cannot wait to see you this weekend. I'll save a dance for you..."

She frowned at him.

"Well Hasuru, if you're done catching up. I think we'll be heading home for now…"

"Fine," Hasuru said smiling. "Give your Dad a hug for me when your arm heals…"

With that the strangers got in the car, even the guy Honey had kicked earlier so they would release Tamaki and Kaoru. He was clearly meant to be just muscle for he didn't seemed skilled in fighting, and the side of his face had a long scrape down the side.

Honey fell to his knees as the cars drove off.

"Honey-senpai!" Haruhi gasped the three of them crowded around him.

"Gosh I didn't do so well did I?" he asked laughing cheerfully and childishly again, but he stopped almost immediately wrapping his uninjured arm around his chest from the pain of trying to laugh.

"Honey-senpai should I call an ambulance?" Tamaki asked nervously looking down at him.

"No, I'm okay," Honey said his bangs hiding his eyes. He didn't look it...

"He needs to go to the hospital…" Kaoru exclaimed.

"No, I'm fine…"

"Honey!" Haruhi snapped dropping the suffix to get his attention. "You NEED to go to the hospital!"

He looked up at her. "Is that an order?" he asked.

"Yes it is!" Haruhi snapped desperately trying to get him to understand.

"Okay then…" he said smiling widely before he suddenly fainted.

Kaoru caught him, "I don't think Honey-senpai has ever had a beating like this one…"

Tamaki quickly took out his phone, "I'll call an ambulance, Haruhi. You call Mori-senpai and let him know what's happened…"

"Uh… right…"

Kaoru was supporting Honey so he didn't just fall to the ground. His breathing was quite slow.

* * *

Mori and Hikaru were beginning their walk home when Mori's phone rang. "It's Haruhi…"

Hikaru looked up at that. As far as he knew, Haruhi didn't ever call Mori-senpai… Why was she calling now? For one horrific moment, he imagined that she was calling to claim her undying love for him and that he was the one she was picking to marry. But the next, that idea was wiped from his mind at the look on Mori's face.

"Where are you?"

The next second, he hung up and took off running.

"Wait! Mori-senpai, what happened?"

"That guy from the video showed up like we thought. Mitsukuni's been injured!"

Hikaru's expression went from concerned to shocked at that news as the two kept running. What creature of hell could possibly have harmed Honey-senpai? He and Mori were… the best!? After rounding two turns Hikaru's side was really starting to hurt, and then he came around the next to find Tamaki, Haruhi and Kaoru all huddled around an unconscious Honey-senpai.

Hurrying over to them Hikaru stared down at him in complete shock. He was so used to the idea that no one could beat Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai… seeing him like this… was scary…

Mori knelt down grabbing Honey's head he took off his sweater letting Honey use it for a pillow. He then felt his arm. Apparently to see how injured it was. Next he softly pushed on his chest… "He's has at least one broken rib, maybe more…"

"Ahh!" Tamaki looked nerve racked. "He's gonna be okay isn't he?"

"Of course, none of his injuries appear life threatening…" Mori said but that didn't lesson any of the worry on his face.

The Ambulance pulled up then and it came to a stop just short of running over a bunny shaped shuriken that had impaled itself into the ground.

* * *

"It seems you did well," Keishin said as he and Hasuru were heading back to Keishin's hotel. "I'll let our King know about what a wonderful job the Hasuakuzon style has done against the Honinozu—"

Blinking he had noticed that Hasuru has slumped down in his seat a ways.

"Hasuru?" Keishin said. "Hasuru?"

He waved his hand in front of his face and then Keishin noticed a cut on Hasuru's sleeve and pulling the sides of the cloth open he noticed a tiny cut beneath… "He seems to have poisoned you with paralysis… I guess that's why he didn't jump immediately back into the fight after falling down, probably waiting for it to kick in I suppose. Then again, what else could he have done? He must have realized he couldn't match your skill…"

Hasuru (as expected didn't say anything, but his eyes looked furious). "Second thought I don't think I'll be telling the King. This really is an embarrassment on your part… being beaten by someone so small…"

* * *

At the hospital only one person was allowed in his room immediately, so Mori went in while the rest of them hung outside Honey's door. Kaoru was recounting the match for Hikaru and Kyoya who hadn't been present.

Then, the sound of the pitter patter of little feet met their ears. Turning they saw a very small woman in Japanese kimono walking towards them. She had brown eyes and brown hair that was pulled back into a small bun atop her head.

Tamaki was still yammering away at Haruhi, with his back to the woman, about why they shouldn't go to this Ball. So he didn't notice her until he felt two soft taps at the back of his knee. He turned, but when he saw no one he looked down. The woman smiled, "Pardon me, but is this the hospital room in which Mitsukuni Haninozuka is currently staying?"

"Uh, yes it is ma'am?" Tamaki said somewhat shyly, which was unusual for Tamaki…

"Thank you," she said and the pitter patter commenced once more as she headed over to the door. Reaching up she tried to grab the handle but couldn't quite reach…

"Here ma'am," Tamaki said. "I'll get that for you…"

He turned the doorknob for her.

"Oh, thank you young man," she said, and the pitter patter initiated again as she made her way into the room.

Mori immediately fell to the ground upon seeing her. Bowing so low his forehead nearly touched the floor.

"Hello Mori Glory!" she said smiling. Tapping his head (as if he were a dog as she walked by).

"Mori Glory?" Hikaru snickered from where the rest of the Host Club were watching at the door.

Mori glared at him as the woman walked over to Honey's bedside. She stood on her tiptoes trying to see him. Mori immediately rushed over pulling up a chair to Honey-senpai's bedside and he (with a respectful bow) picked her up and placed her on it.

"Oh, thank you Mori Glory!" she said patting his stomach this time because she could not reach his head. She turned to Honey smiling brightly. "Honey bunny! Wake up now… it's Mumsey Mum!"

She shook him lightly until his eyes opened. He looked up at her. "Oh, hi Mama-san…" he said rubbing his eye with the hand that wasn't attached to his broken arm, and with effort he sat up a little further on the bed.

"So… that's Honey-senpai's mother?" Haruhi said frowning.

"No wonder their whole family is full of a bunch of shorties, look at the size of her—" Hikaru began only Tamaki and Kaoru covered his mouth for Honey's mother had glared in their direction with fearful eyes that matched Honey's when he was angry almost perfectly!

Then just as suddenly she turned back to her son.

"Mummy heard you got really bad ochies…" she said and as the words left her, her eyes got bright and became brimming with tears. "So she brought you some cake to cheer you up."

His face suddenly flashed with worry. Mori's too.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm not all that hungry right now…" Honey said nervously.

The rest of the host club looked like they were going to die of shock!

"He's refusing sweets," Tamaki said looking paniced.

"Are pigs flying? Has hell frozen over?" Hikaru exclaimed frantically.

"It must be the end of the world!? Honey-senpai being beaten in a fight AND refusing sweets in the same day!?" Kaoru gasped.

"Nonsense," his mother said pulling out a drawstring bag, which upon its opening revealed there were a number of cute and mini bite sized cakes.

"No really Mama-san. I'm not feeling well…"

"Mumsey Mum spoke with the doctor on her way up here. You have two broken ribs, a broken arm, and a dislocated shoulder. Absolutely none of that has anything to do with your stomach! Now here…" she said holding a cake out to him and placing it in the hand attached to the arm that wasn't broken.

"Uh…"

"You don't want it? But… Mama made these so very special for her little honey bunny!" she said. Her eyes round as marbles and glazed over with tears that were sure to soon fall. "You… you won't eat any? What did I do? What I did I do to my sweet Honey bunny to make him hate his poor Mother so…"

"I don't hate you Mama-san!" Honey-senpai said with tearful eyes that matched his Mother's so closely. "Sure, of course I'll eat them!" Honey said…

Staring down at it he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and stuffed the whole cake in his mouth. Instantly he started to look ill… "It's so yummy Mama-san thank you…"

She turned suddenly to the rest of the Host Club at the door and hopped down from the chair walking over to them with the bag of cakes. "Would you all like one? There are plenty," she said cheerfully.

"Uh, I'm getting over a cold so I really shouldn't—" Kaoru began.

"I had a ton to eat for dinner so—" Hikaru was pointing out.

"I'm diabetic so I really can't—" Kyoya began explaining.

"I'm not overly fond of sweets, so I'll pass but thank—" Haruhi had started. She like the other had caught on to Honey's actions. If there was a cake in existence that Honey-senpai refused to eat, then it probably wasn't a good idea for anyone else to eat it either.

While her back was turned Mori handed Honey-senpai a trash can so he could spit out the cake he had been chewing.

"Nonsense," she said smiling. "Mama's cakes are great for colds. They're filled with protein and vitamins, and they make great after dinner snacks. Not only are they diabetic friendly but they are also aren't sweet a bit. They're full of vegetables you know!"

"Oh…" Haruhi laughed nervously. She suddenly understood why Honey didn't want to eat them.

"You all are disgraceful!" Tamaki exclaimed. "This woman has put her heart and soul into a healthy snack alternative for her eldest and injured son, and you won't even try them!? Fear not my lady; I would be most happy to partake of your delicious and healthy cake bites!"

He grabbed one of the cakes from the bag and stuffed it into his mouth and his expression too fell, just as Honey-senpai's had. "It's uh… very…rather… interesting flavor… and… it's hot… really… really hot. REALLY HOT!"

"Oh, you must have got the one with the Habanero peppers…" she said smiling.

"Wha!" Tamaki exclaimed! He suddenly took off running for the nearest bathroom. The twins broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Well, why don't you all take one," she said.

They did, but they didn't eat them...

"Ugh, Mama-san," Honey-senpai said calling her attention back to him, and during the brief moment of her back being turned Mori had passed them the trash can, into which they all threw the cakes.

She pitter pattered back over climbing upon onto the chair once more.

"Mama-san, why did you come all the way here to America?" he asked.

"What do you mean? Mama's little Honey bunny was injured. You can't expect a Mother not to want to see her child when he's injured! Besides, we all know Mommy kisses are the only things that heal injuries," she explained and leaning forward she kissed his cheek. Honey had had to lean over too as she couldn't quite reach even though she was standing on tip toes.

Suddenly the loud pounding of feet through a corridor was heard and a large man came bounding up the hall. He was also dressed in old fashioned Japanese clothes. Though he was very large, not freakishly large, he didn't look like a giant or anything. Though upon his entering the room they noticed he was a good head length taller than Mori-senpai.

"Son!" he said sternly upon entering. "How is it that you were defeated?"

"I guess I was just sleepy," Honey said smiling. "I didn't sleep well the night before I was challenged so I guess I just wasn't on my game."

Haruhi blinked… That was true. Honey and Mori had been taking two hour shifts to guard her at night, not to mention one of them had made sure to always be with her in the day time. Was… had she been the reason Honey got hurt so bad? If he hadn't been so tired, would he have come out better in that fight?

"Who was it?!" he snapped. "I demand to know, we'll sent the whole Haninozuka clan after them!"

"No, that's okay Papa-san. I don't really know who it was, just some street thugs trying to pick a fight I think."

"Ugh… Honey-senpai," she said speaking up. "That's not tr—."

Suddenly Mori stuffed one of Honey's mother's cakes into her mouth. A clashing taste of avocado, banana peppers, and… was that peanut butter?!

She choked on the confection, hearing Mori say, "You looked like you needed cake."

Forcefully swallowing it down she turned back, "Mori-senpai!"

He frowned at her with a look that told her not to speak again…

Honey's father had already begun yelling however so he didn't hear her. "STREET THGUS!? I REFUSE TO BELIEVE MY ELDEST SON COULD BE BEATEN BY SOME RANDOM STREET THUGS!? WHAT SORT OF DISCRACE ARE YOU TRYING TO BRING DOWN UPON OUR HOUSEHOLD!?"

"I know Papa-san… I'm sorry…" Honey said looking ashamed.

"Well what do you expect from someone who fails to embody the Haninozuka way so completely?" said a dull and dismal voice from the doorway. Upon turning they saw it was Honey-senpai's younger brother.

"Chika-chan! You came to see me!?" Honey cheered.

"I only wanted to confirm if what Mother told me was true… so you were injured afterall…" he said his eyes scoping his brother and taking in the state of him.

"You mean you wanted to check and make sure I was dying? Disappointed?" he asked smiling.

"A bit…" Chika said shrugging before leaning against the wall.

"What a thing to say about your brother!" snapped his tiny mother jumping from the chair she pulled out an umbrella (from who knows where) and hit her youngest son over the head with it a few times.

"Mother! Cut it out! Stop! Wait a minute!" he frowned as he brought up his arms to shield himself.

"You may be a rude boy, but that is no reason why you shouldn't have cake!" she said holding out the bag to him.

"No."

"Please have some my baby Chiki Chika!" she said.

"No."

"What a rude boy, don't you love your Mummy… After she slaved over a hot stove, with her tiny legs, and little arms. She could have died… Tripped and fallen into the oven, all in the efforts of making her precious boys some treats. The sacrifice a mother goes through for her children, and yet they treat her like this…" she sighed. "I even made yours with a tiny cutesy chicky on it, because I know how much you love them…"

"I don't either!" he snapped.

"But look at it!" she said holding it out. Indeed the little chick on the cake was imprinted in the icing looking just about as cute as anything…

"I don't…" he said frowning. Though his eyes were watering, much like Honey-senpai's would do when he saw cakes that he wanted but couldn't have, like back when they had banned sweets from the club room. Giving in and groaning, he held out his hand.

"Now what do you call me?"

"Mother."

"No!" she smacked him again with the umbrella.

"Ugh… Mama-san…" he sighed.

"Good boy," she said and she placed the cake into it his hand. Then she stood on her tip toes and patted his head. He was easier to reach since he had fallen to the ground while she had been smacking him with the umbrella.

"Mitsukuni!" his father snapped calling Honey's attention back to him. "You have disgraced our family name. I expect you to work harder in the future to recover from the shame that's fallen upon us today…"

"I will Father," Honey said looking serious. It seemed Honey would switch from Papa-san to Father depending on how serious he thought the situation was.

"Well then, I have to get back to the dojo," he walked over to his son tousling his hair slightly. "I am glad to see you're doing fine."

"Thanks for coming to see me Papa-san!" he said grinning.

"What about me?" piped up the lady from the chair beside him.

"And of course you Mama-san!" he said carefully leaning over he hugged her.

"Tsk… If you're not dead then I'm leaving," Chika sighed turning to go. His Father suddenly reached out his hand grabbing Chika by his collar.

"You say goodbye properly to your brother!" he snapped spinning him around, and thus Chika was forced to give Honey a proper goodbye. Shortly after they left…

Mori walked out into the hall after then and waited until they had rounded the corner when he turned to the door of what appeared to be a hall closet. Which he opened quickly.

"Whaaa!" his brother had fallen out onto the floor.

"I thought you would be here," Mori said staring down at him.

"Ha…" Satoshi jumped to his feet.

"Did you follow Yasuchika here?"

"Yup!" Satoshi said grinning. "He got mad at me though and said I couldn't follow him. But I still did in secret!"

"If he ordered you to stay, you should have stayed…" Mori said blankly.

"Well…" Satoshi sighed. "I couldn't not follow him… You should have seen his face when he got the call saying Honey had been injured. He looked like his whole world had ended and while he packed for his flight here he kept going on and on about what he was supposed to do if Mitsukuni died…"

"Mitsukuni will be happy to hear that," Mori said smiling a little.

"Ugh! Don't tell Yasuchika I said that okay!"

"Unn."

"So Mitsukuni is okay then…"

"Yeah," he explained.

"Good. Well anyway, I'm gonna go sneak off after him again!" Satoshi said. "Bye big brother! See you later, tell Mitsukuni I hope he gets better soon!"

With that Satoshi took off down the hall after them, and Mori turned back heading into Honey's hospital room and closing the door behind him.

"So your brother followed Chika-chan huh?" Honey asked.

"Yeah…"

"Alright, now that we're alone I got some questions," Haruhi said turning to Honey. "Why didn't you tell your Father about your Uncle? And what exactly is with all this secrecy between you two. Both you and Mori-senpai have been acting like there is some secret going on just between you guys."

"Well, I'll guess I have to tell you everything," Honey said smiling. "Hhmm… let's see… As you know, Hasuru is my Uncle, but we kicked him out of our clan some time ago. I was… Four… Five maybe… I'm not sure… Anyway, he was very skilled and really strong. However, he didn't use the Haninozuka way like you're supposed to. He went out of his way to hurt people. For many years, he was the main teacher at our dojo. Now, when you train someone you're supposed to go easy on them so they can build up their strength and slowly improve. But he would go all out on the students using techniques far above their level and a lot of our students got hurt. I remember in my last training session with him he used all the strength he had while fighting me and he broke my arm in the process."

"Didn't you say you four or five when he left?" the twins asked.

"Yup," Honey answered.

"So he broke a five year old's arm…" Kaoru said frowning.

"Harsh, what an asshole…" Hikaru snapped.

"He would make you feel bad too. According to my Uncle, you should use your full strength in every fight, no matter who your opponent is, and if they were strong enough they would be able to withstand it. If they were too weak, they would get hurt. He was my Uncle and my teacher so I believed him. I didn't even tell anyone my arm was broken for a few days because I didn't want my father hearing about how badly I had failed."

He looked up at Mori smiling, "But my Grandmother came to visit me shortly after that and she found out my arm was broken, so I had to tell her how it happened and she was angry. She banished my Uncle from our Clan and had me go to the doctor to finally get my arm looked at. She explained to me that that was not the proper way to learn how to fight and that's when she gave me Bun-bun. She said he would protect me even when she wasn't there to look out for me, and that I should never be afraid to stand up for when I felt someone was doing something wrong…"

"So… out of curiosity was your Grandmother short too?" Hikaru asked.

"Huh?" Honey blinked. "No. Grandma was tall… Why? What's it matter?"

"No reason…" The twins chimed together.

"Alright then… why didn't you want to tell us about it? You two have been acting worried so…"

"Well, Uncle holds a bit of a grudge. He even developed the Akuzon style of fighting, which is basically our family's style except more brutal and deceitful. His style is just as powerful but without mercy or honoring ideals. We noticed from the video Kyo-chan played for us that it was his style, and we knew if he wanted to use force in an effort to take you then someone was going to end up really hurt."

"Well, you did…"

"Hhmm?" Honey blinked at her and smiled. "I don't count. Mori either. It's our job to protect and defend, it's in our clans honor code, and since my Uncle's style wouldn't exist were it not my family's way of fighting. That makes what every evil produced by his technique is by extension, our fault. So it's our job to see to it. That's part of the reason why I pledged my hands to you Haru-chan."

"Mitsukuni? You did what?" Mori said staring at him. But Honey seemed to be ignoring his gaze.

"Yeah about that, what does that mean?" Haruhi asked.

"That means I have to obey your every command or die in the attempt. So when you said you weren't going, that was me telling my Uncle I'd die before I let him take you."

"Well, you didn't need to take it that far did you?" she asked frowning.

"Well, that wasn't the only reason why I did it…"

"Huh?"

"Clan servants can't be romantically involved with the people they serve," he explained. "So by doing this, my Dad can't pester me to marry you... I'm glad he didn't notice you were here. He'll probably be a little mad… But I think serving a Princess would be better than marrying one. Either way it still shows my family in a good light. So I doubt Papa-san will be too mad…"

"…" Haruhi frowned.

"Besides," Honey said leaning back onto his pillows. "You told him you would go to that ball didn't you. Kishon is a pretty rotten place and being a pledged servant to you this will ensure that I can follow you anywhere within its borders."

"I doubt you'd have to follow me senpai," Haruhi said frowning.

"On the contrary Haruhi, Kishon is currently under a dictatorship. The citizens and even visitors don't have the same rights and freedoms as they do in other countries. Once you touch their land you'll be on their turf and then are subject to their rules. It's probably a very good thing Honey did what he did otherwise they could confiscate your passport and prevent you from leaving after you arrive there."

"Couldn't they still?" Haruhi asked raising an eyebrow.

"Technically yes, but forcefully containing a commoner is an entirely different thing from forcefully containing the family heir of rich and ancient noble family," Kyoya explained. "With Honey being a pledged servant to you they can't force him to leave your side, nor can you be taken anywhere without him. Not, without it causing an incident of course…"

Kyoya turned to Honey-senpai. "Quite a smart move, I'm impressed."

"You're not the only one who thinks ahead," Honey said smiling. "But it would probably still be better if we all go there to protect Haru-chan. Besides that I doubt Tama-chan would want to leave her side that long…"

"Speaking of our Lord, where is he anyway?" Hikaru asked looking around the room for the light brown hair he was classically known for.

"Last we saw he had ate that hot cake from Honey-senpai's mother and ran off…" Kaoru pointed out.

"Maybe someone should go look for him," Honey pointed out. After a moment of silence in which no one moved he added. "And I'm referring to the someones who aren't currently laid up in a hospital bed…"

"Yeah, okay, we get the picture," the twins sighed. "We'll go look for him."


	2. Arrival in Kishon

They inevitably decided to all go look for Tamaki, in order to give Honey some time to rest. Haruhi who was last to walk out stopped at the door looking back.

"Mori-senpai aren't you coming?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'll stay," he explained

Looking from him to Honey she smiled walked out closing the door behind her. She wondered just how deep their relationship went. She hadn't really had time to think about the kiss she had seen shared between the two of them. Though it had been nagging at the back of her mind since she had seen it… Were they dating? Were they in love? They were cousins though, but unless she was mistaken they were only cousins by marriage… so…

* * *

"Takashi… are you mad?" Honey asked as Mori too the seat beside Honey's bed.

"No."

"Are you sure… I know what my doing this, has done to your status…"

Takashi now, was the servant of a servant, and that put his status at a lower height in clan hierarchy.

"I can break your bond to me," Honey said. When bound to someone as Takashi was to Honey and as Honey now was to Haruhi, only the person you were pledged to can break the bond of servitude.

"I don't want that," Mori explained simply.

"Well," Honey said frowning. "What _do_ you want?"

Mori shrugged, and Honey looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm cold," Mori said softly and Honey smiled motioning for him to come closer. He suddenly got to his feet and leaned over placing a hand at the side of his face kissing him on the lips. Honey's eyes softened. Kissing was the best way to get warm, but it wasn't something you were supposed to do publicly. Takashi had taught him that. And certainly not in front of others.

Honey brought his uninjured arm up letting the fingers tangle in Takashi's short hair enjoying the motions of Takashi's tongue in his mouth. Without realizing it Honey brought up his other hand just as Takashi had started to deepen the kiss and he felt a pain shoot down his broken arm just as he tried to grab Takashi's collar to pull him closer.

"Nyn…" he winced before looking down at it. His breath which had begun to quicken was hurting his ribs now…

Mori stopped kissing him grabbing the casted arm he kissed the palm of the hand there, and holding it in his palm as though it were as delicate as an egg shell he leaned up to kiss Honey again letting the kisses trail down to the sensitive flesh of his neck and Honey gasped.

"Nya…" he sighed. This really wasn't good for his chest, and he was more than plenty warm enough. "Stop."

Takashi stopped immediately pulling back. He had never gone farther than Honey wanted, and they had never really gone farther than that…

Sighing he sat back in his seat and interlaced his fingers resting his lips against them in thought. "Mitsukuni," he said softly. "Why didn't you fight him seriously…"

"Hhmm…" Honey blinked at him questionably still intoxicated a bit off that high only a lover could give you.

"If you had fought to your full potential, I am certain you could have beat him and not been so badly injured…" Mori said frowning…

"You weren't there Takashi, my uncle is a lot stronger than he used to be. Faster too. Neither of us were using our full strength. Though he was willing to go further in the fight than I was... The core of our family's style is to not use deadly force except for a last resort and only if it is to defend someone else… I'm worried Takashi. He's taken our family's style and made it far more cruel, not to mention," Honey said looking down at his arm. "He still shows no humanity at all, not even against family."

Mori stared at him, still frowning.

"I did purposely give him the opportunity to make contact because I wanted to see if he had changed, to see if he was going to hold back at all in his attack or if he was still just as merciless as he used to be… I had hopped too much I think… I really didn't expect him to use as much force as he did. I guess he can't change…"

"If you two were to fight seriously… Do you think you could win?"

"That's… hard to say," Honey explained frowning. "He's got more years on me training wise, not to mention his size gives him an advantage in strength, though mine gives me an advantage in speed… If we were to fight seriously… No… I don't think I could beat him."

Mori's frown deepened. That was not what he wanted to hear. Mitsukuni was quite intelligent when it came to knowing an opponent, and there had never been a time when Mitsukuni said he could beat someone and lost. Though at the same time, there had never been a moment when Mitsukuni said he couldn't beat someone and won (admittedly this wasn't often). If he didn't know if he could beat someone, he would be honest and just say it. He wasn't cocky like most people at their level of training, and he would never blindly run into a fight having not thought it through. If Mitsukuni said he couldn't beat him… then he couldn't beat him.

"Mitsukuni, when we go to Kishon. Stay near me. Should a confrontation arise, we'll fight him together," Mori explained.

"I doubt there will be a confrontation," Honey said smiling. "My uncle has pledged his hands to the King of Kishon's Family, and if Haruhi really is the Princess… that means her too. It wouldn't be worth my Uncle's life to cause problems during our visit. Though… if it is determined that Haruhi is the Princess after all there might be some problems when we try to leave… He might be ordered by the King to make her stay and in that case it'll take both of us to get her out of there…"

"I understand," Mori said.

"I wonder if he's trained anyone else in our family's style… If that's the case…" Honey frowned thinking about it…

"We will deal with it when the time comes," Mori explained. "But your arm won't be healed by then, your ribs either. Will you even be able to fight?"

"Don't worry about me," Honey said smiling, then looking serious for a moment he added, "If you wish to still serve me after my pledging hands, then this is an order…"

Mori's eyes widened slightly. Mitsukuni had never once given him an order. Not one time in the whole span of his having pledged service to him…

"I want the order of your priorities to be Haruhi first, the rest of the Host Club second, and yourself third. Got it?" Honey commanded smiling.

"Where do you fall on my list of priorities?" Mori asked staring at him.

"I don't."

"Mitsukuni—" Mori began only Mitsukuni interrupted him.

"Don't argue," Honey said his voice uncharacteristically stern. "If our departing gets serious (and I hope it doesn't). Protecting all of them is going to be really difficult. So that is your order. If you refuse then you can just stay home!"

"…"

"Well?"

"…" Mori sighed. "I will carry out this order…"

Honey smiled. "Good!"

He looked around the room frowning. "Do you think this hospital has any cake in the cafeteria?"

Mori smiled… "I'll check."

* * *

"Wow boss," Hikaru said glancing at Tamaki who had run into a bathroom stall and thrown up. "You couldn't even handle a little cake…"

"You don't understand," he said leaning against the bathroom sink. "I think she put a spell on that cake… I thought my insides were going to burn up! I seriously could have died!"

"I doubt that," Kaoru said sighing.

"And water only made it worse!" Tamaki gasped.

"Well, yes. Everyone knows that," Kyoya said from the wall he was leaning against.

"Milord," Hikaru said exhaustedly. "Don't you think you should be a little more manly?"

"Huh?" Tamaki looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean your Princess slash Girlfriend is right outside the door waiting for you get over your little bout of pepper problems. Meanwhile, she just watched Honey-senpai get his arm and ribs broke and he didn't shed a tear and here you are whining like an idiot! Don't you think that's going to tell her something about your masculinity?"

"C'mon! Honey-senpai cries all the time!" Tamaki snapped.

"Yeah, about stupid stuff. It's part of his host club appeal. But in a situation when it really matters he was strong. What is she going to think when she sees you like this?" Kaoru said frowning.

"Ugh… you're right. A strong man should be able to handle a little pepper right?" he said frowning pulling himself to his feet he splashed his face with water. "Alright! I'm fine now!"

"Good," Hikaru said sighing. "Let's go then. We could all grab a bite to eat or something; it's been a long day."

"Maybe we could grab some cake for Honey-senpai and bring it to him when we come up and visit him tomorrow after classes…" Kaoru pointed out as they left the boy's bathroom. Sure enough Haruhi was waiting outside.

"So are you alright now?" Haruhi asked Tamaki.

"What? Of course I am. That cake was so good I went to get some fresh air to tell the world how excellent it was!"

"Huh?" Haruhi blinked. "But you were in a bathroom… I thought you might have had to throw—"

"Don't be silly Haruhi," Tamaki said nervously. "A little pepper like that can't faze me. C'mon, let's all go get something to eat!"

Haruhi frowned looking back down the hall in the direction of Honey-senpai's room.

"He'll be fine," Tamaki said. "His injuries aren't life threatening and we'll see him first thing when classes end tomorrow."

"I know that," Haruhi said. "I was just thinking… About him and Mori-senpai…"

"What about them?" the twins asked together.

"They're… really close…"

"Well yeah," Hikaru said shrugging. "That whole family serving each other thing and the fact that they grew up together… Why wouldn't they be close?"

Haruhi sighed frowning. She really wanted to discuss what she had seen with them all. That the two of them had kissed... But… it wasn't really her place to bring the topic up. So with a smiled she turned in the opposite direction, "You're right!" she said grinning. "Where shall we eat?"

Kyoya's eyes widened at the abrupt change in her actions…

( ) ( ) ( # ) ( ) ( # )

…and he understood…

"Well, I think that little corner shop would be good," Kyoya said fixing his glasses. "Haruhi."

Haruhi turned to him and Kyoya took off his jacket draping it around her shoulders. "It's a little chilly out there. You can use this…"

"Uh…" she blinked. This wasn't at all like Kyoya.

"We can't let our Princess catch a cold after all, now can we?"

Tamaki, who seemed to have noticed nothing, was still walking and he began going on about the different types of food that they had there. And how they should try the phone thing again to determine who pays and he swore this time he would not lose.

Kyoya wiped a few strands of hair from Haruhi's eyes and then began to follow after Tamaki.

"Uh-oh," the twins said in unison looking at each other.

* * *

Mori turned up at the apartment that night, which surprised Haruhi when she opened the door.

"Mori-senpai?" she said staring up at him. "I mean… Weren't you going to stay with Honey-senpai?"

"He asked that I come here and stay with you in his place," Mori explained walking into her apartment.

"In his place?"

"He has pledged his hands to you, and therefore until he can ensure your safety he has decided to stay at your side. The hospital wants to keep him until morning so I am here in his place," Mori-senpai explained sitting on the sofa across from Tamaki who had been talking about their trip to Kishon.

"Great Mori-senpai, you're just in time. We were talking about what we're going to wear on our trip to Kishon this weekend. Since Haruhi has insisted on going, then we're going to have to give a good impression. We were thinking of buying Haruhi a dress worthy of a Princess—"

"You shouldn't come," Mori-senpai said interrupting him with a frown.

"Huh?" Tamaki blinked at him.

"Don't come…"

"Why?"

Mori-senpai frowned.

"We wanna come!" the twins exclaimed.

"Yeah, besides… if Haruhi turns out to be the Princess, we should be there for her," Tamaki pointed out.

His expression didn't change as he looked away with his chin resting on his fist. Haruhi stared at him frowning too.

"Besides, it's a ball so we should all dance with Haruhi there!" Hikaru pointed out. "Here Haruhi, look at this dress!"

He walked over to her holding his phone open to show her one of his mother's designs. "See, this dress sure is fit for a Princess, don't you think?"

"Would you guys stop?" Haruhi snapped. "I'm not wearing anything special, we're going to go there and figure out if I really am who they think I am or not, and then we're going to go home."

"Aw… don't be like that Haruhi…" Hikaru said wrapping an arm around her.

"Haruhi," Tamaki said turning to her. "What do you plan to do if it turns out that you are the Princess?"

"I doubt that will be the case," she said frowning and walking over she took a seat beside Tamaki.

"Well, assume for a minute that it is…" Tamaki said softly. "What do you think you'll do?"

"Well, either way I'm coming back here to finish my study abroad. Then I guess, go back for my last two years at Ouran. Then… I'll find a University and become a lawyer..."

"Uh…" Kaoru said calling their attention to him. "Haruhi, you realize Princess don't become lawyers right?"

"Why not?"

"Because they have countries to run," Hikaru pointed out. "Not to mention they have Princes to marry. I've never heard of a Princess becoming a lawyer…"

"Well, maybe I could be the first," she said smiling.

Tamaki smiled at the happy look on her face. A sudden image of her in a grand ballroom style Princess dress and crown appeared in his mind, only she was standing in a courtroom with a briefcase.

"Doubt it," the twins said together.

"Now stop it!" Tamaki said rising to his feet. "If Haruhi wants to be a lawyer while being a Princess, then she can!"

"Milord, she really can't," the twins said together.

"My Haruhi can be whatever she wants!" Tamaki explained.

"Can we just go to bed?" Haruhi sighed. "We got class in the morning…"

Once again they pushed aside the furniture and rolled out the futons. One of which remained in the corner, and Haruhi noticed that Mori-senpai kept glancing toward it.

* * *

The following day when classes let out they all bought cakes for Honey-senpai and brought it to them in the hospital. When they opened the door to his room they saw him kinda stuck. He had been trying to dress himself even with his arm in a cast and his chest wrapped. Only one of his arms had managed to find its way into the proper slot but he seemed to be trying to get his casted arm through the head hole of the shirt.

"Honey-senpai?" Haruhi said smiling, and she wasn't the only one who did. Mori's stoic face had let a small smile slip as he stepped forward helping Honey put on his shirt properly.

"Thanks Takashi," Honey said happily.

"Are you leaving already?" Haruhi asked.

"They said I could leave as soon as someone was here to pick me up," Honey said. "I figured you guys would be here shortly since classes were out..."

"Darn, and we brought all this cake cause we thought you would have to stay here awhile," the twins said dully. "Guess we'll have to throw them away."

"Wha! No I'll eat them!" Honey said frowning.

"But these were, sorry you have to stay another day in the hospital cakes…" the twins said with a shrug.

"No I'll eat them! Don't throw them away!" he said looking like he was about to cry.

Smiling the twins handed them over and Honey opened the box of them with wide and happy looking eyes. "Let's see… I'll eat these now, and these can be for the ride back, and… these three will be for when I get there!"

While he ate, Mori grabbed the sling Honey had been left and helped him put it around his head and put his broken arm into it. After Honey ate his cakes they got into their car so the driver could take them back to the apartment, and Honey ate his, "on the ride cakes" there.

"Honey-senpai," Haruhi said frowning. "Are you sure you're going to be well enough to go to Kishon this weekend?"

"Sure am," he said smiling.

"It's just…" Haruhi frowned. "Maybe you should stay home and rest."

"No way!" he said physically shaking his head. "I'm going! I'm in service to you so I can't let you go to another country without me."

Haruhi frowned… as Honey returned happily to his cake. She thought about what was going to happen when they get to Kishon, but she supposed she would have to just find out that weekend…

* * *

And that weekend came all too soon. Haruhi and the rest of the Host Club found themselves on a plane and in coach none the less. Haruhi couldn't afford a first class ticket, and she refused to let one of the other members buy her one. Thus they all purchased coach tickets in order to sit with her. Poor Mori looked rather cramped, the twins kept complaining about the service. Honey slept through most of the flight, waking just long enough to eat some cookies offered to him by the stewardess who seemed to think Honey was a child rather than the 18 year old he was. She even asked him if he was flying to meet his parents.

"No," Honey had answered.

"No?" the woman said frowning. "Who are you here with?"

"Hmm… my friends and my cousin," Honey informed her and with his finger he indicated Mori beside him.

"Oh," she said smiling. "Well aren't you sweet taking care of your little cousin…"

"Were the same age," Takashi answered softly not looking up from the magazine he was reading.

"Uh…" she blinked. Haruhi who had watched this scene play out saw the look of confusion on the woman's face. And she wasn't sure if she was confused at the idea that Honey was as old as Mori or if she thought Mori was as young as Honey looked. Though the woman never asked for confirmation either way and had hurried off to see to other people.

Tamaki kept commenting at the ingenious way that they had set up coach to accommodate so many commoners while still trying to make them feel important with service. At one point he even used his Host Club skills to flirt with a different stewardess to get Haruhi extra complimentary peanuts, which she then refused to eat leaving Tamaki looking confused.

For part of the trip, a movie came on which had a rather intense make out scene between the protagonists. "Wow," Honey said staring up at it. "They must really be cold."

Mori smiled at that.

Around the two hour mark of their flight, the twins were becoming overly bored and decided to start bothering Haruhi with questions of outfit designs she would like for her new Princess wardrobe. They also bothered her with questions about what size crown she might wear and if she wanted it to be mostly gold or mostly diamonds.

Then suddenly the **FASTEN SEATBELT!** sign came on. So Hikaru and Kaoru were forced to return to their seats.

"Are we landing?" Honey asked.

"No, it's too early," Kaoru explained checking his watch.

Tamaki looked excitedly out the window. "Maybe there is a monster on the wing of the plane… like in that one show!"

"Tamaki-senpai you watch too much TV," Haruhi said sighing.

"Hhmmm…" Tamaki turned to her suddenly taking her hand. "You're not scared? Are you Haruhi?"

"No, of course not. I just don't think it's very smart to be talking about Monsters on the wing of a plane when we're in the air," she pointed out. "You could scare the other passengers."

Then just as suddenly it felt like the plane was slowly going into a nose dive. Screams erupted from many of the passengers. A baby somewhere was crying.

"What's happening?!" Kaoru gasped, and suddenly air masks dropped down from the ceiling and people really began to panic then!

Everyone was frantically trying to grab the masks. Tamaki grabbed one and put it around Haruhi's face. Everyone was fearfully looking about. Honey removed his to turn back to the twins, "Does this plane have any parachutes?"

"Why would a commercial aircraft have parachutes?!" Hikaru snapped angrily through his own mask.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said getting his attention he forced the mask back over Honey's face. "Please keep your mask on."

Then Kyoya removed his seatbelt and moved out into the asile laying down he slid to the front of the plane as though it were a slide. "Kyoya-senpai!?" Haruhi gasped.

"What is he doing!?" the twins gasped. Kyoya stood up leaning against the door to the cockpit, which wouldn't open.

"Mori-senpai!" Kyoya called looking back.

Removing his mask Mori climbed past Honey and slid to the front as well, and when he got there he kicked the door open for him. Kyoya immediately entered. The pilot seemed barely conscious, and only vaguely aware of what he was doing.

"Sir! Are you alright?" Kyoya called to him. Though he appeared unresponsive, and Kyoya nodded to Mori who undid his seatbelt and physically pulled the Pilot from the seat and laid him on the ground. Kyoya sat in his place, seat belting himself in and putting on the Pilot's headset. Mori took the empty seat beside him staring ahead.

"This is Kyoya Otori, a passenger on flight 416 heading to Kishon. I have currently commandeered the aircraft as our Pilot is out of sorts, do you copy?"

"We read you. Do you have any piloting training?"

"Minimal," he answered. "I've flown small aircrafts in the past, and though I've read up on it, I've never physically flown a commercial aircraft. I've straightened us out now, but I'd appreciate a walkthrough on landing, when it comes to that. If you don't mind…"

"Of course. How is the Pilot do you know what happened?"

Kyoya nodded in Mori's direction, which knelt down to check his vitals. "He's breathing but he's barely coherent…"

Kyoya translated this to the main base as Honey suddenly walked in. "Wow, Kyo-chan… you can fly a plane!"

"Technically speaking," Kyoya answered.

Haruhi and Tamaki emerged in the doorway and Tamaki grinned, "Wow, cool as always Kyoya. You just saved all our lives!"

"No I'm still here, go ahead," Kyoya said ignoring him and focusing back on his correspondent over the headset.

"Isn't there supposed to be a backup pilot in cases such as these?" Honey said frowning looking at Mori.

"Yeah," he nodded in agreement.

"Uh, guys we got a problem…" the twins said as they emerged. "All the stewardesses are in the back unconscious as well…"

"What!?" Haruhi and Tamaki gasped.

"The people are still panicking," Hikaru explained.

"All right men!" Tamaki said seriously. "Our job as members of the Host Club is to make all women happy! There a plenty of women on this plane who are scared and upset now. So, let's get out there and start making these people happy!"

He pointed suddenly to the twins, "Hikaru! Kaoru! Go find some spare uniforms that we can put on!"

"Yes Sir!" they said and they hurried off.

"Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai, you guys did some great cooking that day we went to the beach, so go see what you can do about food for these people!"

"Yes!" they answered.

"Kyoya, you keep flying the plane and Haruhi, you stay with the pilot and let Kyoya walk you through anything you might be able to do for him or the unconscious stewardesses."

"What are you going to do Tamaki-senpai?" Haruhi asked blinking up at him.

* * *

Ten minutes later Tamaki was serving drinks to the crowd at large wearing a male stewards uniform. The twins were consoling and chatting up the passengers. Honey and Mori were making meals for the guests and even talking occasionally. Honey even consoled the crying baby on board that no one else seemed able to soothe.

Haruhi was going back and forth between the pilot and the unconscious stewardesses to check their vitals and look for any signs of something more serious. She walked back into the cockpit sitting in the pilot assistants chair with a slight sigh.

"Kyoya-senpai…" she said turning to him.

"Hhmmm?" he answered not taking his eyes off the sky.

"What do you think happened to them?" Haruhi asked glancing at the Pilot behind her who was resting under a blanket his head propped up on a pillow. She had put the unconscious stewardesses in a similar state in back.

"From their conditions I would assume they were drugged," Kyoya answered. "But we can't be sure without running tests. Still, if this were a medical condition it seems awfully coincidental that the Pilot and every stewardess on board would all take ill at the same time. Being drugged would be the most logical explanation…"

"You think they'll be okay?"

"They'll be fine," Kyoya answered her. "If anything more serious were going to happen, then it would have already happened by now."

She smiled, "You know, if I ever found I couldn't be a lawyer. I think the next best thing would be a doctor…"

Kyoya glanced at her taking his eyes off the sky for the first time, "If you ever did decide to be a doctor I would make sure you got a job at one of our hospitals."

"Yeah?" she said smiling, her face lighting up in such a brightened expression. Kyoya straightened his glasses looking back out and away from her.

"Hikaru!" Kaoru said annoyed. "Slow down! I can't keep up!"

Getting to her feet Haruhi walked to the cockpit door. Kaoru and Hikaru seemed to be attempting to juggle between the two of them the stress balls that the stewardesses often gave to passengers when they were nervous about their flight, and Kaoru suddenly missed the next ball and the whole pattern was thrown off. All the balls fell to the ground and Kaoru fell to his knees.

"Hikaru! Now look what you did… you made me drop them…"

"He he… Seems you need more practice!" Hikaru said grinning.

"If you would have just slowed down, I could have kept up… Why are you always so mean…" he said, tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

Hikaru knelt down on one knee before him cupping his face with his hands. "Forgive me Kaoru… once again my showing off has upset you… I'm so sorry…"

He used his thumb to wipe away a tear and many of the girls on board gasped in awe. The guys, looked rather confused. A few aisle's over Honey and Mori were serving the finger sandwiches they had put together.

"Thank you," said one of the passengers taking the small plate from Mori. Looking down at it she noticed it wasn't cut quite as nicely as her friends piece had been. "Kind of uneven isn't it?"

"I'm sorry," Honey said putting on his best frown and looking sad. "I tried my best to cut it as even as Takashi's… but with my arm it was really hard…"

The girl's eyes suddenly grew round as marbles as she stared down at him, "Oh no! Don't you worry about that? I'm sure it will be just as good. Thank you so much!"

"Really!" Honey said smiling. With a wave from his free hand they turned to serve the next passengers a seat up and the girls from the previous row squealed at Honey's cuteness.

Tamaki was pouring a glass of wine for an elderly lady, "Like you this wine has only matured and grown sweeter with age. Please my dear Lady accept this drink to calm your nerves and still my heart, for your flushed and worried face has sent my soul into a panic…"

The older woman looked like she was going to faint, and Haruhi smiled. She was reminded of their days at the Host Club… and she kind of missed them…

"Ugh…"

She turned around. "Kyoya-senpai, the pilot looks like he's coming around…"

Kyoya glanced in his direction as the man sat up looking groggy, "Ugh… what happened?"

"Finally awake?" Kyoya asked.

He looked up at him, "Who are you?"

"I'm the one driving your airplane. You fell unconscious on us. Do by chance remember if you ate or drank anything funny?"

The man weakly climbed to his feat siting in the seat next to Kyoya, "Uh… no. I don't… I don't think… I mean… I had some coffee that the stewardess brought me, but nothing strange."

"I see," Kyoya said. "Please rest up so you will be well enough to land. I've never landed an airplane as large as this, so I'm not really confident that I can."

"Uh… yeah…"

"Haruhi, bring the Pilot some water," Kyoya said, he put the headset back on speaking into it. "This is Kyoya again. Our Pilot seems to have come to. I'm going to give him some time to rest so he'll hopefully be coherent enough to land."

The Pilot grabbed a second headset on the dash board and began answering the questions from his boss. A few minutes later, the stewardesses came to and about a half hour after that the Pilot landed them safely in Kishon.

When they got off a small reception met them and Kyoya was congratulated for keeping a cool head head and flying the plane until the Pilot awoke. When the crowd had begun dispersing they noticed a limo where Keishin and Honey's Uncle were waiting…

"Oy! Over here!" Keishin called happily to them and thus they approached but with caution.

"We heard things got rather exciting up there…" Keishin said to Haruhi with a grin.

"I wouldn't call almost crashing exciting," Haruhi answered with a slight frown. She hadn't forgotten their last meeting or how the man just behind Keishin had hurt Honey so badly.

"It's a good thing you were there Mr. third son of the Otori family…" he said glancing to him.

"Oh, it was nothing," he answered ignoring the slightly insulting tone to his words.

"Well the King will be quite pleased with you, you saved our precious Princess after all," he explained and suddenly he held a hand out to Haruhi. "My Lady, your chariot awaits… And by chariot I mean limo."

"I'd be fine with taking a cab…" she said frowning.

"Nonsense," he said. "You are our Princess and you should arrive in style. Besides, I doubt the gates to our Palace would even open for a cab…"

He turned walking over and opening the door, "There is more than enough room for all your friends as well. We anticipated their wanting to come and have made accommodations accordingly…"

She frowned but gave in. Whatever got her there quicker so this whole nonsense could be put behind her she supposed, and thus she climbed in, the rest of the Host Club, Keishin and Honey's uncle surprising all fit comfortably in the stretch limo.

"Mi-chan," Hasuru said smiling. Honey glanced his direction without turning his head. "How about a drink Mi-chan, as peace offering over your failure…"

"No thank you," Honey answered.

"C'mon Mi-chan, be a man," he said.

"I'm not old enough to drink," he pointed out.

"Really? How old are you now?"

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen and you're that short? Heh… I told my brother not to marry that short girl from that Kurunyo family," he said to Keishin. Honey's frown stiffened slightly. "But never mind about that Mi-chan, you can drink at eighteen here in Kishon."

"No thank you," he said more firmly.

"Leave him be Hasuru," Keishin said before turning to Haruhi. "Princess, first things first I will take you on a grand tour of your Palace. We have tennis courts (if you play), three pools, a large and lovely garden in which your late Mother adored greatly."

"I wanted to talk about that… exactly why do you assume your late Princess was my Mother?" Haruhi asked frowning.

"Hhmm?" Keishin frowned looking slightly surprised. "Our late Princess was very intelligent. She did not wish to be found, and thus we were not able to find her. However thanks to more updated technology of recent years we were able to track her based on photo search in which we linked one of her pictures to her most recent fake I.D."

"Though we knew that method had faults and thus we looked deeply into Mrs. Kotoko Fujioka's life and we found many clues as to the fact that she was indeed our Princess. We looked into her past, her present… Her marriage…" he said smiling fondly at Haruhi as though she were something he treasured. "Imagine, our Princess wedding someone like that… Well, since we learned fairly quickly that she died we knew the only heir to the throne would be in her child, and thus we went to see your Father in person and ask. When he said he had indeed conceived a child with our Princess, I was… surprised…"

Haruhi frowned having felt very insulted by his saying, _someone like that_.

"But no matter, you are here now, and after all this time. Our King's throne will have an heir at last," he said smiling.

"I still don't see where the proof is exactly…" Haruhi said frowning.

Keishin reached his hand out taking Haruhi's. "As soon as we get to the Palace, I will show you all the proof you'd ever want to see."

"Ah… So yeah!" Tamaki said nervously suddenly getting up he moved to sit between Haruhi and Keishin. "I'm personally really looking forward to see this Palace. I bet it must be huge! Do you guys have moat?"

"Like those circular lakes that went around old timey castles from fairtales?" Keishin asked eyeing him.

"Uh-huh!" Tamaki said excitedly. "And of course you must have towers where the Princess can let down her hair and—"

"Look," Keishin said sighing. "About thirty years ago there was a horrific fire in the our old Palace and it had to be entirely renovated. There really is nothing ancient about it. It's quit modern."

"No moat or towers?" Tamaki said looking slightly disheartend.

"No."

"Well, do you guys at least have a drawbridge?" he asked hopefully.

"I think those come with moats boss," the twins pointed out.

"Oh…" Tamaki was looking upset, like how he would always get when his fanatic imagination was proven to be false in reality.

"Hey, do you guys have horses?" Haruhi asked.

"Yes of course," Keishin answered.

"By any chance are they white?"

"Uh… some of them are…"

"See Tamaki, they have white horses like Prince's would ride. See, it is sort of like a fairytale castle…" she said smiling at him.

He looked at her and grinned back, "Yeah, I guess it kind of is."

Hikaru leaned back folding his arms with a frown. They really did make a nice couple…

* * *

When the doors of the Kishon Palace opened they were met with a gran corridor dawned with paintings and chandeliers of grand stature. The floor was marble the rug looked fancy… All the windows seemed to be regular glass with the edges leading into stained glass as each window had a decorative rose in the corner.

They were taken off to the side where a pair of grand double doors opened up to reveal a ballroom. A table had been set up with fancy china plates and glasses. Along the walls stood a number of servants.

"This is where we will hold our ball tomorrow. Today however, we have prepared a feast for you…" he said bowing them in.

Talking rather excitedly the host club went over to the table in which name tags were placed at their seats. Haruhi was at the end, along with the King who didn't seem to be present yet. Honey sat on Haruhi's left as was customary of one in service to her. They all took their seats, the opposite end of the table still empty.

"So, will the King be joining us?" Haruhi asked Keishin who had sat himself at her right to Tamaki's dismay.

"Yes, he should only be a few minutes. He'll be announced when he's arrived. Until then we should dicuss what you'll be doing after the ball."

"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked.

"Well, you'll of course be staying, your Grandfather has been quite lonely and I know it would make him so very happy if you would come here to live with him."

"I can't," she said. "I'm currently on a study abroad trip," Haruhi said. "As you know."

"Yes," he said smiling. "But Kishon has some of the greatest teachers from across the globe. I assure you anything you might wish to know or learn on your trip to America you can of course learn here."

"Thank you for the offer," Haruhi said. "But I would still like to retu—"

"My Princess you must be reasonable, now that we have found you, we want you to live here. In your Palace—"

"Annoucing his Imperial Highness! The King of Kishon!"

Keishin got to his feet and grabbed his glass holding it high above his head Honey's uncle and Kyoya had already done the same, "Please everyone, if you would follow my lead."

The rest of the members of the host club got to their feet too holding their glasses high. Though when Haruhi made to do so Keishin whispered to her, "Not you your highness, this is to honor the entrance of royal family members, you are a part of that category so you can remain seated."

"Uh… okay," she said softly as she did so.

The far doors opened and a man walked through looking strict. He was dressed in a business suit adorned with a sash and a number of elaborate pins and buttons. He had brown hair and eyes that matched Haruhi's color almost exactly, though his hair had bits of grey from age.

"Our King!" Keishin said happily along with Honey's uncle and Kyoya, and the host club awkwardly followed suit. Smiling the King took his seat and that seemed to be the signal for the rest of them to sit down.

Kaoru who was seated beside Kyoya leaned over, "And just why do you seem to know everything we're supposed to do?"

"Come now, only a fool would visit another country without fully researching the places customs," he said smiling.

"He really is a jackass…" Tamaki said in an undertone staring down the table at Kyoya.

"So you are Haruhi," the King said staring at her.

Haruhi nodded nervously. To her disappointment, this guy really did look like he could be her grandfather, which didn't help her case of trying to prove she wasn't royalty.

"You look just like your Mother," he said smiling at her.

"Uh… thank you… but, your highness. I think there has been some mistake. I really don't think I could be—"

"Hasuru, please bring the portrait," he said softly. Honey's uncle got up and left the room.

"I have something to show you which I think will prove to you that you indeed are my Granddaughter," he said smiling.

A minute later Hasuru wheeled in a painting that was covered with a tarp. He wheeled it down to Haruhi's end of the table as the King spoke, "This painting was painted when my daughter was your age. You're sixteen I believe…"

Hasuru pulled the tarp off revealing what appeared to be a portrait of Haruhi with long hair, wearing a gorgeous gown, she was smiling.

"That painting used to be in the hall with other depictions of the royal family members, but since the day she ran away I have hung it in my room to ensure I won't forget her face…" the King said frowning.

Haruhi stared at the picture. It did look so much like her. Not to mention the whole Lobelia evidence. So it was true. She really was the Princess. The realization seemed to only just hit her. She had been so sure something would come up that would be clear cut evidence they had been mistaken and she could at that point go home with her friends and this would all be but a memory. Though it seemed… she really was the Princess, and that meant her mother… her mother had lied…

Tamaki was staring at the portrait. He recognized that smile on Haruhi's Mother's face. It wasn't real. It wasn't a genuine smile. He felt like someone had clenched his heart and squeezed it. His mother used to smile like that, back when he told her he was leaving for Japan in order to help her. She had smiled at him, but it was filled with sadness and pain. Much like the smile Haruhi's mother had in that portrait.

"Plus, your Mother's name provides more evidence. She was Princess Koriko Tokari Korokawa, look at the first letters… Ko To Ko…" the King raised a finger at each syllable.

Haruhi frowned, her gaze falling to her plate.

"Well, now that that matter is settled," the King said softly. "Let's eat." He snapped his fingers and the servants along the walls immediately shuffled about to bring the food.

Haruhi stared at her plate in disbelief as the empty china was replaced with plates of food. Her mother had lied to her. Never once… not one time had she ever bother to mention that she was the Princess of Kishon… Her mother was a lawyer. A respectable lawyer of a small firm… Nothing else!

"Haruhi?" Tamaki said staring at her.

She looked up at him and his expression fell. "Haruhi, why are you crying?"

Was she? Haruhi reached up touching her cheek that was wet with tears. She grabbed her napkin quickly burying her face in it.

"Haru-chan?" Honey said blinking up at her.

"Sorry," she said wiping her eyes and then blowing her nose. "I'm fine."

"Haruhi…" Tamaki said softly.

"I just… never thought… something like this. I convinced myself it couldn't be. Because my Mother wouldn't lie to me! But she did," Haurhi said softly frowning. "Well, I'm sure she had a good reason…"

"I wouldn't say that, but regardless…" the King said smiling. "You are my Granddaughter and I have no doubts about that…"

Keishin then got to his feet where he held his glass up. Once again everyone around the table did the same. "Our Princess!" they cheered together.

The King smiled at her from the end of the rows of saluting people on either side of the table. She suddenly had an overwhelming sense of dread hit her. What kind of Princess could she possibly make?

* * *

After dinner Kishon took everyone on a tour of the Palace and the King (who hugged Haruhi before he left) had had other business to attend to and thus did not come along. They were shown the tennis court and the Pools as well as many other places. The last visit was to the bedroom that had belonged to Haruhi's Mother, and Keishin explained that the room was now hers if she wanted it.

It was a large room (about the size of Haruhi's whole apartment), there was a plush and comfy four poster bed. What appeared to be a small library in the corner with a sofa seat set up there for comfortable reading… There was a room barrier in the corner, the kind fancy ladies would change behind in older movies. Two doors at one side of the room led to a personal bathroom for the princess with a tub that seemed to be the size of a spa and was set in the floor. The other room was an insanely large closet.

"I am told that your Mother loved to read in that little corner," Keishin said smiling. "Do you find any of her books interesting? If not, we would be happy to bring some in that suit your taste better."

Haruhi walked up to the bookcase and skimmed her collection. It seemed most of the books were law books. One of which still had a bookmark in it. Haruhi frowned.

"The bed is soft," the twins said laying down on it and staring up at the ceiling.

"Haru-chan, you should see your balcony view!" Honey said smiling.

"Yeah…" she said dully without turning to look.

"Well, Princess. You have had a long day. I think it would be best if I left you with your friends. Please go to bed at a reasonable hour and tomorrow we'll take you on a tour through some of the cities," Keishin said bowing. He motioned for Hasuru to follow him and they went to the door.

Keishin turned back to the room at large, "We have kept the event with the air plane out of the media, and I would personally like to request that you don't mention the incident that occurred on the plane ride here. None of you, it would needlessly worry our King."

"Of course," Kyoya said smiling. "You have a good night, both of you."

With that they left closing the door behind them. Kyoya frowned immediately.

"Well isn't that interesting…" he said softly turning to the lamp on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Huh?" Koaru asked nonchalantly while he examined some of the beautiful dresses within the closet.

"Nothing," Kyoya said as he examined the lamp shade.

"Guys, I don't want to be rude or anything… but do you think I could call an early night?" Haruhi asked. "I have a lot to think about…"

Tamaki looked at her noticing her sad expression, "Haruhi, your Mother (I'm sure) had a good reason for not telling you about all this…"

"Tamaki can we talk about this tomorrow…" Haruhi asked not looking at him.

"But Haruhi…"

"C'mon Tama-chan," Honey said using his uninjured armed to grab Tamaki's, and without letting him go he hurried to the door. "Haru-chan, if you need me for anything just call my cell okay."

"Okay Honey-senpai…" she said softly and then felt fingers in her hair and she looked up to Mori-senpai smiling at her before heading to the door too. The twins and Kyoya followed as well, and they all bid her goodnight. When they walked out of her room they were met by what appeared to be two bodyguards on each side of her door.

"Honeynozuka-sama," the servant said bowing. "Your room shall be right next to Princess Haruhi, should she need her servant."

"Oh okay," Honey said smiling.

"Morinozuka-sama, Otori-sama, Hitachin-sama's, Suoh-sama," the other servant said bowing. "Please allow me to escort you all to your rooms, they are in the next wing over."

"Alright," Tamaki said feeling somewhat uncomfortable, as these guys looked awfully muscular to be just regular servants.

Honey was instructed to enter the room to Haruhi's right, and he waved goodnight to them all before entering. The other servant walked with them to the other wing and led them to a corridor in which there was a room for each of them and a servant standing outside each door. All of them just as built as the others.

"Please pick out which rooms you wish to have in this hall. There is one for each of you," the servant who led them there said smiling. "They are all the same though."

Feeling rather awkward they all went to the doors of the rooms they picked and then…

"I'm sorry, only one person per room please," said the servant at the door the Hitachin brothers had picked.

"It's fine, were siblings. We always share a—"

"You will sleep much better in separate rooms," the servant said staring down at them.

"That's okay, we wanna sleep in the same—"

"You will sleep much better in _separate_ rooms," the servant said again. This time he emphasized separate.

"Uh… okay then," Kaoru said awkwardly. "I guess I'll just take this one…"

"Good choice Hatachin-sama," the servant said. "All of your suitcases will be delivered within a few minutes."

Thus they all went into separate rooms, and Kyoya removed his tie taking out his cell phone. No service. Just as he thought… He walked over to his lamp and glanced at the inside rim. There was a bug there. Not an insect one, but one of those ones that might be in a spy movie to monitor discussion. He had seen the same thing in Haruhi's lamp…

* * *

Haruhi felt like her heart had fallen through the floor, and she took out her cell phone. She knew the one person she needed to talk to right now more than anyone. Her father…

Though when she tried to dial it she noticed she didn't get service. Getting to her feet she went to the balcony, still no luck. Then she went over to her door and opened it with the intent on possibly finding somewhere with service. Only…

"Do you need something your Highness?" the servant at her door asked.

"Uh… I don't have service here, so I was gonna go find—"

"The country of Kishon does not have the same lines of communication as the rest of the world. Thus our cell phone towers would be useless for any hand held phones not purchased here in Kishon. However, if you need to make an international call you may use the landline in your room which has been set up to do so."

"Oh…" Haruhi said. "Thanks…"

She closed the door behind her and went to her night stand noticing a rather fancy phone by the lamp there. He picked it up noticing there were no buttons, but it was one of those old fashioned turning phones. Number by number she dialed the code for Japan and then her Father's number.

"Hello?" her father's voice answered.

"Hi Dad…" she said taking a deep breath. "We need to talk…"

"Sweetie, what's wrong?"

"It's true Dad. Mom was a Princess. Did she never tell you?"

"…no, she never mentioned it," her father answered. "But are you sure?"

"Well, the Lobellia Academy pictures… the portrait they have here of Mom when she was my age. It can't be anything else."

"Well, your Mother did always get rather nervous whenever I would ask her about the past…" he said with a touch of sadness. He could tell his daughter was so much upset about the face her Mother was a Princess, but about the fact she had hid it… Haruhi idolized her mother, and the idea that she had this whole life neither of them knew about… It hurt both of them to know this…

"Haruhi…" he said softly into the phone he heard his daughter get a little too quiet. His daughter always tried to be strong and stand on her own two feet. So when breath hitched with the characteristics of crying, he felt his heart drop. "Haruhi, you mother was a great lawyer, she was a good woman, and a wonderful Mother… Princess or not, that's who she was... I'm sure your mother... She had her reasons for not telling us."

"Yeah… I know. Thanks Dad," Haruhi said smiling. "I'll call you tomorrow. Love you."

With that she hung up and got her feet walking over to her mirror, she wiped her face. "No more tears," she told herself. "This does not change the Mother you remember," she told herself.

Then she forced a smile before it faltered a second later… But… what was the reason she had for not telling us?

* * *

"Haru-chan! Haru-chan!"

She blinked to find Honey sitting on her bed smiling at her.

"Ugh… Honey-senpai?" she said yawning. "Good morning."

"Haru-chan," he said smiling. "What do you think they'll have for breakfast here? Dinner wasn't too good. People in Kishon sure love their salt huh… I hope breakfast will be more sweet than salty."

Haruhi smiled as she sat up pulling her knees to her chest. "How are your arm and ribs Honey-senpai?"

"Oh their doing good," Honey said looking down at his casted arm. "This should only take four or five weeks to heal, my ribs too if I don't do anything to hurt them again."

"So I take it don't hurt anymore?" Haruhi asked, knowing that they were probably very painful. She got up and noticed someone had brought her suitcase while she was sleeping she went over and brought it to her bed so she could pick out something to wear for the day.

"Sometimes," Honey explained. "But it's okay because pain is important too, you know?"

"I doubt that," Haurhi said pulling out the outfit she wanted that day, she was thinking she would be just fine if she could feel no pain at all. Then she wouldn't be so hurt that her Mother had lied to her all her life.

"No pain is important! Because you can still get injured. Like if someone were to walk through fire. If they didn't have pain to tell them fire was bad, then they would just walk through it and get more and more burned until eventually they die."

Haruhi noticed the changing wall, and she figured she might as well use it so she could still talk to Honey. So she took her clothes behind it.

"I suppose in that case pain is important…" Haruhi agreed.

"Yup," Honey said laying back on her bed with his uninjured arm behind his head. "We learn pain is important when we train, and we learn to recognize good pain and bad pain."

"So… Honey-senpai…" Haruhi said figuring now might be a good time to talk to him about what she had seen.

"Are you… um… Are you and Mori-senpai a couple?"

Honey blinked glancing in the direction of where Haruhi was changing though he couldn't see her. Haruhi was holding her breath waiting for Honey's answer.

"No," Honey answered. "We're not."

Frowning she quickly pulled on her shirt which was the last thing she had to put on. "That… That's a lie. Honey-senpai you and—" She emerged around the corner of the changing wall to see Honey sit up smiling at her, but it was a strange smile. Not at all like the one he usually had at the Host Club. It was a sad smile that she couldn't ever remember seeing him wear before.

"Takashi is my cousin by marriage, he is my friend, as well as my servant," Honey said. "He means a lot to me, but no… we are not a couple."

"Honey-senpai, that day back at the apartment, he kissed you… and it wasn't a kiss like ones family members might share… I don't understand why you're denying it…"

"Well, admitting it would be a bad pain," Honey said smiling wider but with that underlining tone of trouble.

Haruhi's eyes widened slightly, she didn't really understand what he meant by that, but couldn't ask him either for the door to her room opened right then and Tamaki and the others walked in.

"Haruhi," Tamaki said grinning. "It's time for breakfast. Do you think they already planned breakfast or do you think we can order something we'd like?"

"As to that," said a voice from the hallway making Tamaki jump a little as Keishin walked in as well. "Breakfast has already been prepared…"

Keishin turned bowing to Haruhi, "My Princess, I would be happy to escort you to breakfast if you wish."

He held his hand out to her smiling and in the background Tamaki looked… panicked!

* * *


	3. A Series of Strange Events In Kishon

Breakfast was rather awkward. Keishin seemed to be doing everything within his power to keep Princess Haruhi's attention on him. He was telling her briefly about the history of her country and the past Kings and Queens. Haruhi, who had taken the attitude of (make the best out of an unexpected situation), was genuinely interested, and poor Tamaki could hardly get a word in edgewise.

"Then there is of course our language, which you will need to learn fully," Keishin told her. "The language of Kicho has a similar structure to Japanese so I don't think it would be too terribly difficult for you to master."

"Oh…" she said frowning. She had to learn a whole language now…

"Don't worry," Keishin said taking her hand. "I would be happy to be your personal tutor."

"Uh, I don't really know if I'm comfortable with that…" Haruhi said nervously removing her hand from his.

"I could teach her," Kyoya said softly as he took another bite of his eggs.

"You?" Keishin said eyeing him.

"Of course," he said and suddenly switching to Kicho he added. " _I have had six years of study in the Kicho language from native speakers of the language's four most used dialects, and I have passed your countries proficiency test with a 100% average. Besides, it would probably be easier to learn from a friend rather than a complete and total stranger. Such as yourself_ …"

It was an insult, and Keishin knew it. They continued to glare at one another. No one else at the table had understood what Kyoya had said but they sensed the tense air.

* * *

A half hour later they were all piled into that limo from before and as they drove through cities and towns Keishin pointed out the sights. Kishon was really an interesting place, while there was a modern building or two most of them were still old-timey places. Temples and shrines were scattered all throughout the cities.

But there was one thing Haruhi found hard to overlook…

"Wow, these people are impoverished…" Hikaru said as he looked at the citizens out of the window.

"Even by Haruhi's standards," Kaoru said as he glanced a little girl who seemed to be wearing a dress made from a sack that she had cut holes in.

"Gee thanks guys," Haruhi said glaring.

"Yes it is sad," Keishin sighed.

"Why are the people in this country so poor?" Haruhi asked him.

"Well, that would be your Grandfather's doing," Keishin explained. "We are often praised for having a higher than average minimum wage. However your Grandfather taxes the people to a horrible extent. Half of whatever they earn at their jobs goes straight to the King."

"Why would he do that?" Haruhi frowned looking upset.

"He has his reasons, unfortunately. However, with our government set up the way it is, he cannot be questioned…"

"Anyone can be questioned," Tamaki said smiling. "Next time we see the King we should ask him—"

"Oh go right ahead," Keishin said smiling. "The last person to ask him about how and why he was running the country in the manner he was ended up being banished."

"They banished him?" Kaoru said raising an eyebrow. "Seems a little harsh for just asking a question."

"Yes, his wife and two children are still here too. However he can never return to this country because of being banished and because of the King's rule that no citizen can leave, his family can't be with him…"

Tamaki's eyes widened slightly… "They're separated…"

"Yes, he will never see his wife or children again," Keishin said and he did look sad.

Tamaki's eyes were tearful and he turned to Kyoya with his weepy expression.

"No," Kyoya answered simply.

"But Kyoya… they're family… it's separated…"

"No!" Kyoya said straightening his glasses. "We're on foreign soil. This is a diplomatic issue. It's not our place to interfere…"

"But…"

"Never mind about sad tales such as that," Keishin said. "My Princess I wish to show you one of the greatest and rarest sights you'll ever see in the world. For that we will have to take a helicopter or two."

"What sight is that?" Haruhi asked interested. She didn't know of too many unique sights in Kishon and none of the world wonders were located on the continent…

Keishin grinned…

* * *

After a helicopter ride they got to the site Keishin was referring to, and it appeared to be a large lake out in the middle of snowy mountains. Keishin passed out warm and plush winter jackets to everyone when they landed.

"And, you'll need these," he said holding up ice-skates.

Haruhi was pulling on her gloves when she raised an eyebrow. "You brought us all the way here to skate?"

"Yes, and no…" he said smiling. He told everyone to put their blades on.

"Wow," Kaoru said, "You got all our skate sizes?"

"Forgive me, in order to make Princess Haruhi's friends more comfortable we made sure to get your sizes from your luggage. So that whatever we planned we would have the necessary attire for it. We have even planned your formal attire for the ball this evening…"

"I brought my own dress," Haurhi pointed out as she put on her skates.

"Forgive me Princess, but since you are a Princess of our country we think it best you wear the attire of our country as well. Frankly, that dress was not suited for a Kishon Ball."

"Takashi," Honey said smiling. "Wanna have a race?"

Mori nodded, thus the walked out onto the ice and lined up. "Tama-chan! You tell us when to go okay!"

Honey turned to Mori, "We'll race to the other end of the lake and back!"

"Got it."

Thus they got in position.

"Uh… Honey-senpai," Haruhi called. "Do you think it's okay to be doing this with your arm?"

"Huh? Sure, skating is all in the feet," he said smiling.

"On your marks, get set… GO!" Tamaki called and Mori and Honey took off. Skating like speed skaters they zoomed down the lake. Honey and Mori's eyes both widened at the realization when they noticed it. This lake wasn't just a lake. The glare from the sun made it not really noticeable until they were actually on it, but the frozen lake was perfectly clear! Every rock, every stone, the sand below the water, it could all be seen and bright and clear as if they were merely floating above it. Deeper down (where the lake wasn't frozen) they could see the fish swimming. It was incredible, however they didn't forget about their race despite the lakes beauty. Upon reaching the end the two skidded to a halt and began to skate back. Honey being slightly ahead, which really wasn't surprising. Being smaller, Honey was faster than Mori.

"HA!" Honey said smiling when they reached the end and Tamaki declared Honey the winner.

Smiling Mori put his hands in his pockets, staring at Honey with a sense of admiration. Though, Honey hadn't noticed because he had hurried over to Haruhi. "Haru-chan! The lake is perfectly clear! It's like your skating on air!"

"Indeed, that is the beauty of this lake…" Kishon said. "Come Princess, let us skate to the center and view—"

"Uh, I'm just as fine staying on the edge," Haruhi said. "I've never really skated before."

When Tamaki heard that his head perked up like a dog that had just heard his master say the word, "food." A sudden image of himself and Haruhi out on the ice came to his mind.

" _Tamaki-senpai, I'm scared," Haruhi said blushing._

" _Fear not my Princess, lean on me," he said hold out his arm. I won't let you fall," he said softly._

" _Senpai!" she gasped holding his hands as he led her (with unrealistic) professionalism across the ice in circles and figure eights._

"Yes! Perfect!" Tamaki said grinning a small gleam in his eye. "That's what I'll do. I shall teach Haruhi to skate and she'll have to hold and cling to me for support. She'll be so beautiful, like an Ice Princess!"

"Kaoru, our boss is daydreaming again!" Hikaru said furiously. "Boss, wake up from your Ice Princess fantasy!"

Hikaru had started shaking him back to reality.

"Besides, Haruhi's already on the ice…" Hikaru pointed out.

Tamaki blinked. Sure enough Keishin had Haruhi's hands and had led her out on the ice. She was quite wobbly. At one point when she began to fall, he caught her helping her back to a standing position. "Here, move your feet like I am."

"Uh…" Haruhi tried to mimic him.

"No, wait Haruhi! I'll show you how to-," Tamaki started to skate out and suddenly fell.

"Boss!" Hikaru sighed. "Will you get up and go out there!?"

"Uh… I just realized I don't know how to skate either…" Tamaki said.

"Really? After all that talk?" Kyoya said sighing…

"I'll teach you," Mori said as Kyoya (sighing went out onto the ice). While he was nowhere near as good a skater as Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai he did seem quite accustomed to skating, and thus he skated out towards Keishin, grabbed Haruhi's hand and skillfully pulled her from him.

"Kyoya-senpai what?"

He maneuvered behind her and took each of her hands in his holding them out as he led her quickly along the ice, "Haruhi, look down."

Blinking she did. It was indeed like skating on air. Now that she wasn't worried about falling or moving her feet to match someone else's she could appreciate it, and since Kyoya was behind her nothing impeded her view of the fish that swam below the frozen area and they were going fast enough that it felt like flying.

"Wow! You're really good Kyo-chan!" Honey said before he skated a circle around them and continued off.

"But…" Tamaki said disheartened. "Me and Haruhi were supposed to do that—"

"Boss you can barely stand up on those things, how were you going to do that with her?" the twins mocked together.

"Ugh," Hikaru sighed. "I just get used to Tamaki stealing her from me, and now Kyoya's trying to steal her from me too!"

"Actually he is trying to steal her from Tamaki…" Kaoru pointed out but wished he hadn't after the look Hikaru gave him.

Kyoya started to show her how she could skate on her own.

"Kyoya-senpai?" Haruhi said as he helped her glide across the ice.

"Yes? Princess," he answered eyeing her with one of his classic and mischievous smiles. Like he was thinking something no one else knew about it.

"Why are you acting like this?" she asked him staring up at him. "This isn't like you at all…"

His smiled widened. "Do you remember back on our beach trip when you told me I had nothing to gain from being with you?"

"Yeah," she said nervously.

"I found something I can gain…" he told her, and the look in his eyes did look quite… evil.

She sighed nervously and then…

A loud BANG sounded! And the ice around them collapsed. Both she and Kyoya fell into the frigid water.

"PRINCESS!" Keishin gasped. He had retreated to the bank to sulk when Kyoya had skillfully stole the Princess' attention. But now his attention was on the spot where they had disappeared.

Honey and Mori glanced at each other, and in a split second had seemed to decide what they were going to do.

"Hika-chan, Kao-chan, find some rope for us!" Honey said as he and Mori began to remove their heavy coats and skates.

"There should be some in the helicoptors!" Keishin said panicked.

They hurried to search for it. Tamaki (panicked) he started to run out on the ice towards the hold after taking off his skates only Mori grabbed his jacked pulling him back onto a snowbank. "We don't need three people out there…"

Honey who was down to bare feet, shirt and pants had run out into the snow a short ways before running back he then rushed forward skidding along the ice on his side. However (with his good arm he seemed to be trying to slow himself down which allowed him to catch the edge of the after his body fell in the water. Though, he seemed to be waiting there a few seconds. Mori followed shortly after doing something similar. He too waited at the edge.

"What are they doing!?" Tamaki gasped.

But the next second both of them had taken deep breaths and emerged below the water's surface.

"Boss!" Hikaru called. "Will you come over here and help us!"

The next second Mori and Honey had emerged with Kyoya and Haruhi. They had had to remove the other's heavy coats and let them sink because it had weighed them down.

Honey, who had removed his arm from his sling in order to be able to help Haruhi had his broken arm clinging to the ice's edge and his good arm around her.

Haruhi and Kyoya were both gasping and coughing.

"Guys, you gotta be really calm right now okay," Honey said. He and Mori were breathing heavily too but they did seem in better control, which was partly due to the fact that they had had safety measure training on what to do when you fall into icy water, and partly because they hadn't been under as long as them.

There was a possibility of dying just from the temperature of the cold water and shock of going under so quickly. It causes your heart to speed up and could in some cases stop it. The best way of preventing this was to not panic.

"It's c… cold," Haruhi said shivering.

"I kn…know," Honey said smiling at her. Something about the fact that Honey was able to smile in a situation such as this, did reassure her…

"Mori-senpai," Kyoya said. "What's t…the best w…way to—"

"Hey!" Honey called to their friends on shore. "Th… Throw the rope out as c… close as you can to us!"

Hikaru walked out as far as he dared to ensure the rope would go out as far as possible and then threw it as hard as he could. However it didn't quite reach them.

"Damn it!" Hikaru snapped. "Hold on a second senpai, I'll try again!"

"No!" Honey called back. "It's f…fine!"

"Kao-chan, Ha…haru-chan," Honey said. "We're going to lift your l…legs. So you're both parallel t… to the ice."

They both stared at Honey intently listening to their instructions. "When we d…do, push yourself forward until y…you're on the i…ice. Do not stand up under any c…circumstances… Crawl out until you r…reach the rope… They will p… pull you then…"

"What… what about y…you t…two?" Kyoya said.

Honey smiled, "Send the r…rope back when y…you're s…safely on s…shore…"

With that Honey and Mori did as they said Haruhi and Kyoya did as they were told attempting to push themselves forward. "K…keep your w…weight dispersed. Ha…Haru-chan!" Honey called to her when he noticed she was trying to pull herself up.

Kyoya was crawling faster than her and when he reached the rope he leaned back grabbing her wrist and draggin her up to him. He wrapped the rope around his hand a few times for a better hold and yelled to them that they could start pulling.

"P…pull them s…slow!" Honey called. He could see the ice they were being dragged across wasn't too stable.

When they were half way to shore Mori and Honey kicked their feet until they too were level with the ice, and then Mori pushed himself forward beginning to pull himself out too. Only when Honey tried a pain shot through his arm.

"Ah!" he winced from it slipping back into the water slightly.

"Honey-senpai!" Haruhi gasped after having been safely pulled to shore along with Kyoya. Keishin (who had grabbed blankets from the helicopter was handing them out to Kyoya and Haruhi as Tamaki and the twins were coiling the rope for another throw.

Mori looked back and told Honey to try again, but this time he grabbed the hand on his good arm and pulled him up onto stronger ice. "Thanks Tak…kashi," he said smiling. Mori frowned the ice was cracking a little beneath them. After already having to support Kyoya and Haruhi's weights it seemed to have been weakened.

Mori frowned. They would have to do two more trips…

When the rope was thrown back, Takashi grabbed it and wrapped it firmly around Honey's good arm, "You go back f…first."

"Huh! No h…hold onto me, w…we'll go back toget—" Honey started.

"I know y…you can see the strength of this ice t…too!" Mori said sternly. "Y…you're li…lighter. So g…go."

"But Ta…takas—"

"Okay!" Mori called to them. "Pull him slowly."

It was considerably easier pulling Honey-senpai across the ice as he was so small. Mori watched him leave and his mind drifted…

* * *

"He hasn't spoken a word since he was born!" exclaimed Honey's father as he sat with Mori's father playing an ancient Japanese board game. "My son is quite outgoing. Perhaps if the two played together it might make young Takashi more willing to speak…"

"Perhaps, I shall bring Takashi here this weekend then," he said making his next move.

Thus, that weekend he brought his son as planned and he brought him into the main house where he instructed him to sit on the mat, which Takashi did. A few minutes later the sliding door opened and a small boy with blond hair entered.

"Hi Takashi!" he said happily running over to him. "Papa-san told me I should come play with you!"

Takashi stared blankly up at him.

"They said you don't talk, will you talk to me? Please?" the boy said sitting down in front of him smiling. But darker haired boy remained quite silent and expressionless.

"My name is Mitsukuni Haninozuka," Honey said staring up at him, and Takashi's eyes widened slightly at the last name.

"Hey I know, wanna go play with me!" Honey said. "I like sparing, do you spar at all?"

As expected, Mori sat there unmoving…

So Honey grabbed his arm forcing him to his feat he practically dragged him to the door when he stopped looking at him, "Hnnnn… You know… You're short!"

Measuring Takashi's height Honey noticed that he was an inch taller than his cousin. "It's okay, since you're little I'll take care of you! So let's go outside and play!"

The two spent a good portion of the day out in the woods behind Honey's house and when they returned Honey still hadn't got him to speak. They walked up to Honey's father who was standing on the porch with Mori's father.

"Did you succeed?" he asked Honey.

"No Papa-san…" Honey said turning back to Mori looking sad. "He won't talk no matter what I do…"

"Well, it seems this was hopeless then… Thanks for your help Huninozuka-san…" Mori's father said sighing. "We'll be leaving then…"

"Until our family reunion," Honey's father said waving.

Takashi was put into the limo and it began to drive away when Honey suddenly called, "Wait!"

He hurried off to the limo (the window of which his father rolled down with the push of a button. Honey grabbed the edge pulling himself up so he was hanging on the window edge. "Cousin Takashi!" he said smiling brightly. "You can come back and play with me next week okay! And any week after!"

Takashi simply blinked at him before Honey slid down and ran back to his father.

Takashi turned around in his seat to watch Honey run back.

"Well, how about it Takashi, would you like to come back and play with your cousin sometime?"

Takashi nodded as the limo drove away…

A week later Takashi returned with his Father to the Huninozuka estate. Only to find…

"Ah, your son has been injured…" Mori's father said solemnly.

"It was due to a family problem, you need not worry yourself… He will be fine with time."

"So should we postpone their playdate to another time then— " no sooner were the words out of his mouth and Honey came running into the room his arm in a sling. He hurried over to Takashi.

"Takashi! Let's go play!

"Uh! Mitsukuni, you should take it easy so you don't injure your arm any further," his father said looking slightly worried.

"It's okay Papa-san," Honey said smiling. "I have a whole other arm that's fine!"

With that he grabbed Takashi's arm and hurried off with him to the Forrest, where (like last time) he tried to show him anything and everything that would make him talk. Mori did not speak on this occasion either however he kept staring at Honey's arm…

When Honey noticed this he looked down at his cast, "Oh, do you wanna know what happened?"

Mori shook his head yes.

"Well… I was too slow," Honey said simply. "I was too slow, and so I got hurt. But it's okay, because I'll be faster next time. I train every morning with my family so I can only improve… right?"

Mori stared…

"Say… why don't you talk? Do you not want to, or can't you?"

"…"

"Hmmm…" Honey frowned. "It's okay if you don't want to talk. It's okay, if you never talk. I'll still play with you even if you don't…"

Honey turned walking further into the forest, "I wish you would though, life is more interesting when people can express their feelings and have conversations…"

Mori blinked at him and they spent a few more hours playing together. Then they hurried home when it started raining making it back a minute after the downpour started so the two of them were soaked! Smiling their father's gave them towels and Honey told them about all the things they saw in the woods.

Mori's father turned to his son, "What did you see that was interesting today Takashi?"

"…"

"Ah still," his father sighed ruffling his wet hair. "C'mon, the servants should have dinner done by now. Let's all go eat…"

Many weeks passed where Takashi would visit the Haninozuka estate, and as always he refused to speak. Though his father had seen a change in him… Despite not talking, he seemed livelier. Honey offered him some food and Takashi ate so much he had to go to the hospital that night.

Later, it was decided that Takashi was better off when he was around Honey and so the family moved to a mountain manor very close to the Haninozuka estate. Thus the two boys could then see each other every day.

And that meant they played together almost every day, and thus Honey noticed when Mori began to grow, and one day he turned up and he was no longer shorter than him. In fact, Honey had to stand on his toes just to reach the same height.

"Maybe you're going through a gross spurt!" Honey said while they ate lunch on Honey's porch.

"It's a growth spurt sweetie," his little mother said happily as she was walking by.

"That's what I said, gross spurt!" Honey repeated.

Frowning Honey looked down at the bun he was eating. "How tall do you think you'll get?"

Mori shrugged.

How tall did Mori get? Very tall! It seemed like every other time he came over Honey was another centimeter shorter. By the time elementary school started Honey had to tilt his head back just to look at him. He was the tallest first year elementary student, and had to have his uniform specially made.

Honey however, was average, and roughly the same height as his peers. Which was the last time he would experience this…

Shortly after their first week of Elementary school the two had been playing in the forest by Honey's house as they often did. But today something different happened…

"Takashi!" Honey called to him smiling. "Look how high I am!"

Honey had climbed almost completely to the top of a tall tree, "Now I'm taller than you!" he said smiling.

Mori looked up at him grinning.

Not being able to climb up any higher he instead began to climb down, and six large limbs from the bottom Honey lost his footing and he fell. Mori had spotted this instantly and hurried forward catching him before he hit the ground.

"Wha! Thanks Takash—"

And suddenly, Mori kissed him. The initial shock took him by surprise, but after a second or so what was happening had hit him and he pushed away clamoring to his feet. "What are you doing?!"

Mori didn't answer but stared at him blankly.

"Takashi! What did you think you were doing?" Honey snapped staring at him.

Without a word Mori walked by him and started looking at a caterpillar. "Takashi! Talk to me!"

Mori however continued to ignore him leaving Honey in a rather annoyed state, and when they walked back up to the house neither of them were looking at the other. Honey's father who was talking with Mori's called to them, "Lunch is ready! Come eat you two!"

They started heading into the next room when Mori suddenly reached out grabbing Honey's sleeve, and Honey turned back to him.

"What? Takashi? What's wrong?" Honey's tone called the attention of their father who turned back to look at them.

And then… suddenly…

"I pledge my hands to Mitsukuni Haninozuka," he said.

Everyone there looked completely shocked, at this Mori's father unexpectedly began to laugh. He ran over and hugged his son smiling, "You can talk! You can! Oh your mother will be so happy to hear that!"

"Well, it seems it's even in your son's blood to serve our family. Even after two generations…" Honey's father said smiling, and looking down at Honey he added. "Takashi is your servant now Mitsukuni, aren't you happy?"

"NO!" Honey snapped.

The same sense of shocks seemed to echo through the room, but this time it was laced with a sense of foreboding…

"NO! I don't want him to be my servant!" Honey snapped frowning. It was uncharacteristic for them to see little Mitsukuni so upset, as generally Mitsukuni was a very happy and fun-loving child.

"Mitsukuni?" his father said frowning, and suddenly Honey ran out of the room disappearing down the hall…

Takashi frowned his gaze falling to the floor.

"Well…" Honey's father said nervously. "Kids… what can I say? I'm sure he'll come around in a few days…"

* * *

 _You may not have wanted me to be your servant_ , Mori thought. _But I will be… Now until the day I die_.

When they felt Honey was on sturdy enough ice, Tamaki hurried out pulling him to shore and Hikaru wound the rope again to throw out to Mori.

Once again the rope was flung out and Mori grabbed it. The twins and Tamaki all pulled on the rope but very slowly. Then a cracking sound and Mori fell through the ice again!

Piercing cold once again met him and it seemed worse the second time. Mori didn't let go of the rope, and used it to pull himself back to the surface where he clutched the edge of the ice. He remained still for a second trying to take deep breaths and steady his heartbeat.

Honey (who was on the bank clutching the blanket Keishin had given him) looked entirely worried. He noticed how much Mori was shaking from the cold, he noticed how his lips were turning blue. He noticed how unsteady his breath was, and the ice around him looked dark from being thin.

He had to help! And he made to get to his feet to go out there, only Kaoru (having noticed this) let go of his end of the rope and wrapped his arms around Hoeny to stop him, "Honey-senpai you can't!"

"Ta…Takashi!" Honey snapped trying to pull away from Kaoru, but due to the cold and he didn't have his usual strength so Kaoru was able to hold him back. "I absolutely f…forbid you t…to die! I mean it! That's an order!"

Mori smiled. The first order he was given by his Master, he certainly couldn't disobey it. Though Mori was painfully aware at how much he was shaking now, and how much harder it was to move his limbs. He was very glad he hadn't gone back with Honey or they might both have fallen in again.

Taking another deep breath he kicked his feet despite how painful it was to do so, until he was level with the ice again pushed himself up onto it still clutching the rope. Kaoru got back to his feet and helped Tamaki and his brother pull. Honey too got to his feet (his blanket falling off him) he hurried as far out as he thought would hold Mori safely, and despite his bare feet he stood firm. As soon as Mori reached that point he knelt down grabbing his hand pulling him further to safety. Tamaki and the twins ran forward too and from the bank Keshin threw them a blanket…

At last everyone was out safe!

* * *

Shivering and cold they all piled back into the helicopters and were taken back to the palace. When they arrived (it seemed Keishin had called ahead) for there were four doctors on hand and two nurses for each person who had fallen through the ice.

After being looked over with scrutinizing detail by the staff, they were all deemed safe and sound. Even though it had felt like forever, they hadn't been in the water that long. Honey's arm had been re-casted as the previous cast had gotten soaked.

Haruhi had gone to take a nice warm bath while the boys sat around in a lounge room waiting for her. This room was very cozy with lots of plush seats and sofas and a raging fireplace. They had also all been given hot chocolate to warm up.

"So…" Kyoya said softly. "I can't be the only one who has noticed…"

"Noticed what?" Tamaki asked looking up at him, completely oblivious…

Honey lowered his mug looking at the marshmallows floating in it, "I've noticed."

Mori, though he didn't respond, nodded.

"Noticed what?" the twins asked.

"I think, someone is trying to kill Haruhi," Kyoya explained.

"Oh that's makes sense…" the twins said together.

However, Tamaki had spit out the milk he was drinking. "WHAT!?"

"Think about it, a newly discovered Princess visits his her country for the first time and the plane's pilot and workers just happen to fall unconscious sending the plane into a nose dive…" Kyoya said. "Then we're taken to a lake where she falls in, almost drowning."

"C'mon guys," Tamaki said frowning. "Do you know what you're implying? I mean especially the lake. How could that have been planned?"

"Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai, when you guys raced when we first arrived, did the center of the lake seem to be thin at all?" Kyoya asked.

Honey shook his head, "If I had thought the lake couldn't support our weight I would have told you guys."

Mori nodded in agreement.

"When Haruhi and me were skating," Kyoya said. "I heard a slight beeping sound just before we fell through. And there was a loud bang."

"Wasn't that just the ice cracking?" Tamaki asked looking nervous.

"That was too loud to just be cracking ice…" Honey explained.

Tamaki glanced at each of his friends in turn. "So… you really think that someone might be trying to hurt Haruhi?"

Before any more could be said the door suddenly swung open and some servant came piling in.

"Pardon us, but it's late. I think you would all be more comfortable in your own rooms," one of the servants said smiling.

"Yes please, come with us…"

"We're fine," Tamaki explained.

"You'll be more comfortable in your own rooms; besides, you all need to get ready for the ball. Though if any of you are too tried to attend, you're welcome to call it a night," another servant explained.

"We were going to wait for Haru-chan…" Honey pointed out.

"She is going to be assisted in getting ready for the ball, so you won't see her anyway. So please, come with us."

Seeing no other choice, they were all taken to their respectful rooms where they were told to get dressed if they wished to attend and someone would come to call on them when the ball was starting…

* * *

Mori had gotten dressed in the attire he planned to wear to the ball when he heard a soft thump outside his balcony window. He pulled back the curtain to find Honey sitting on the railing smiling at him, and with a smile he opened the door walking out to him.

"Hi!" Honey said cheerfully.

"Do you really think you should be scaling buildings in your condition?" Mori asked. Honey's room was quite a ways away from where his room was located.

"Huh?" He grinned. "Nah, it's okay. I was careful."

"Uh-huh…" Mori said sarcastically, though he couldn't quite pull off the tone.

"Takashi…" Honey said suddenly looking kinda serious. "If Kyoya is thinking it as well, then it really must be true… Who do you think is trying to kill Haruhi?"

"Keishin possibly," Mori answered. "But honestly, there are any number of possible people. Dictatorship countries tend to have more enemies than friends…"

Honey's frown deepened. "Well wh—"

"How about your ribs? Or your shoulder" Mori asked. "Are they healing well?"

Honey pouted, "Stop changing the subject, I told you I'm fine. We're talking about keeping Haruhi safe right now…"

"Mitsukuni," he interrupted. "How is your arm…"

"Takashi! Stop!" Honey snapped sternly adding a frown for good measure. "That is not what we're talking about right now."

"Alright," Mori sighed leaning against the balcony railing beside him. "We could do a stakeout after everyone goes to bed after the ball. I could follow Keishin and you could tail the King."

"Honey frowned. There would be major diplomatic problems if we got caught…" Honey said pondering the idea.

"Then how about we _just_ focus on protecting our friends for now… Since they put you two on one side of the palace and us on the other I'll watch our friends here and you can focus on keeping Haruhi safe," Mori offered.

Honey continued to frown and after a brief moment of silence he added, "Mori, I don't want you coming to the ball okay, you or the rest of the Host Club. Would you please just stay in your rooms?"

It wasn't an order Mori noticed, though Honey did have the power to command him to stay, he choose not to. Thus, Mori had the right to refuse. He turned to him, and noticed Honey was avoiding eye contact.

"Why do you not want us to go?"

"Isn't it obvious, if someone is trying to kill Haruhi, then this Ball would be an ideal time to do it… I can't protect you and her at the same time."

Mori smiled. "Have you forgotten that it's my job to protect you?"

 _It's not_ , Honey thought to himself as Takashi's hand slid up his neck into his hair. He stood close enough that Honey could rest his forehead on Mori's chest.

"Mitsukuni," Takashi whispered. "You know I can handle myself and at the ball, I will look out for the other members of the Host Club so you can just focus on Haruhi…"

"But…"

Mori walked over to him wrapping his arms around Honey's shoulders, and Honey let his forehead rest on Mori's chest taking in the scent of his cologne. He stroked Honey's hair for a moment to console him before tilting his head up and kissing him.

They did this often, but in secret. Though they had never gone further than simple kissing, both of them feeling the temptation would be too much.

The door to Mori's room opened suddenly and a woman peeked in, "The Ball is ready to begin Morinozuka if you're—"

She noticed he wasn't in the room but her gaze turned to the balcony window where she saw him standing out and looking at the view. She walked over to the balcony door entrance, "Um… Sir…"

"I heard you," Mori said turning around he followed her out of the room. Honey clinging to the floor of the balcony just over the edge and out of sight. He had moved quick jumping over the edge when they heard the door open. He supposed he better hurry back to his room before someone noticed he was missing.

* * *

No less than three women had burst into Haruhi's room to help her change. When all was said and done Haruhi found herself in a poofy dress with her hair done up in curls and her makeup professionally done. She was given a pair of gloves that only covered her fingers and thumb (which was apparently a rather popular trend in fashion for the country).

There was a knock at the door and Honey's voice was heard. "Is she decent?"

"Just one more…" the woman began who was painting on her lipstick. "…second. Yes! She's done. You can come in!"

Honey opened the door peeking inside he smiled at her.

"Wow Haru-chan," he said rushing in. "You look so pretty!"

"I feel heavy…" Haruhi said getting to her feet. Indeed it did feel like the dress alone made her at least three pounds heavier than she was.

"Well, that's what Princesses in this country wear," Honey explained. The assistant woman hurried out with a bow to Haruhi. "I think you look wonderful."

"Thanks," Haruhi said frowning. Sensing her unease Honey took her hand looking up to her with a smile.

"You'll be okay," Honey said smiling. "I'm here so you don't worry about anything."

Haruhi blinked at him. "What's there to worry about?"

"Uh…" Honey answered frowning. "Nothing."

Blond strands peeked around the corner of Haruhi's doorway shortly followed by Tamaki's face. "Wow! Haruhi!"

He hurried in looking like his sparkly and wide-eyed self. "You really look like a Princess!"

"Thanks," Haruhi said dully. "Let's just get this over with…"

Haruhi really wasn't a fan of balls or dancing, and the memory of the Ouran Ball she had attended floated back to her. Then, she had been dressed as a boy though. Now she was a girl so she would have to assume the girl role in dancing. Her heels were already starting to hurt her feet too, and she hadn't even really started walking in them yet…

Tamaki held his arm out for her to take. He had put on his sweet smile again and Haruhi felt her face grow hot as she took it.

As soon as they got outside the door they ran into Keishin.

"Wha… What are you doing here?" Keishin asked Tamaki frowning. He was dressed elegantly for the Ball as well.

"I'm escorting Haruhi to the Ball," Tamaki said innocently blinking at him.

"I am supposed to escort Haruhi… And you were supposed to enter through the guest doors. "My servants said they were going to see to that personally."

"You mean the guards you posted in our hall… Oh the twins caused a distraction for them so I could sneak away and escort my Haruhi!"

"It is customary that a Princess enters the ball on the arm of their betrothed or a member of the Kishon court. Since I am not yet officially her betrothed, and you certainly aren't, neither of us can escort her as that. However, I AM a member of the Kishon court, so… If you will step aside…"

Tamaki opened his mouth to speak but stopped after he felt a tap on his shoulder. "Tama-chan, let Keishin escort Haru-chan."

"Wha—" he made to protest but stopping short at the look on Honey's face.

"We are on foreign soil and have our own family and stations to think about. Going against the customs of a dictatorship country when we've been invited to a royal event wouldn't be a good idea…"

"But…"

"Since that's settled," he said grabbing Haruhi's armed he pulled her forward and she almost stumbled over her heels but he caught her. "Don't fall my dear. Falling would be a horrible impression to leave on your public's minds especially the first time they're meeting you."

He helped her right herself and then proceeded to lead her to the ballroom. An annoyed Tamaki and Honey in toe.

Before they reached the area where they would be led inside Tamaki was shuffled off by servants to enter the guest entrance rather than Haruhi's royal entrance. Honey was allowed to stay since he was her right hand.

She was led to a pair of double doors to a bright room which quickly revealed a number of party guests all staring up at her in awe. Her host training had prepared her well to be appealing in this situation. So she gave the crowd her best smile as a man's voice introduced her loudly to the crowd. "Introducing Princess Haruhi Fujioka Korokawa, the Princess of Kishon!"

The crowd gasped, whispers over took the group like a wave. Applause broke out, one man (in the back) even began to cry.

With a smile Keishin led Haruhi down the long staircase before her (and she had to hold up a bit of her skirt so as not to trip). Haruhi noticed the other members of the host club off in the distance. Mori (being the tallest of them all) caught her eye first and she saw the rest of them gathered near him all smiling at her. She had started to walk towards them when music suddenly broke out and Keishin asked her to dance.

Not wanting to be rude, she accepted.

"That guy's trouble," whispered Hikaru frowning from their place in the corner of the ballroom.

Honey joined them at that moment, keeping his eyes on the dancefloor the whole while, but he nodded in agreement to Hikaru's words.

"My Lord," Kaoru said looking annoyed at Tamaki who was staring up at balcony seating on the side wall above the crowd. "Another man is dancing with your girl on the dancefloor. Shouldn't you be freaking out right now? You know… like you normally do?"

"It's customary, and we can't interfere with customs. Like Honey-senpai said. But…" Tamaki's eyes never left the direction he was staring the whole time he spoke. "Doesn't that look like Éclair?"

At the mention of the name, they all (except for Honey) glanced in the direction he was looking. A girl with maroon colored hair was staring down at the dance floor through a pair of opera glasses. She wore a beautiful gown as well.

"Did she dye her hair?" Tamaki questioned staring at her. Éclair's hair was a light chestnut brown color, at least it was the last time he had seen her. Though that was some time ago…

"I don't think so," Kyoya said frowning up at her.

"She does seem to have an appreciation for opera glasses like Tonnerre," Hikaru said.

"That's Beignet Tonnerre," said a voice behind them (a familiar one).

"Renge?" Tamaki turned.

"Surprised?" she asked grinning. "My family was invited for the ball. I must say I was shocked when I heard. Haruhi… royalty. I always thought there was something mysteriously graceful about her."

The twins rolled their eyes in unison.

"So who is she?"

"She is Éclair's adopted sister from her father's second marriage. When Éclair's mother died (when she was just a year old) her father remarried. Unfortunately to a woman later found to be unable to have children, to strengthen the union of their new marriage, they adopted Beignet."

Kyoya was writing in his notebook once again writing the information down.

"You didn't know about her Kyoya?" Tamaki asked.

"I knew they had an adopted child, but adopted children in high society are often looked down upon and forgotten. She was irrelevant so I never looked into her," Kyoya said dully.

"You can say that again," Renge sighed. "Since she was adopted she has rarely ever been seen out in the public eye. Preferring to avoid the rumors and dirty looks adopted children tend to get…"

"That's sad…" Honey said frowning, though his eyes never left Haruhi, but he had been listening to the story. Mori patted the top of his head to console him.

"She seems to be staring at that guy intently…" Hikaru pointed out. "Maybe she has a crush on Keishin…"

"And why wouldn't she? Keishin, is a young noble here on Kishon. Not to mention he's absolutely dreamy! But of course he doesn't hold a candle to my Kyoya!" she said suddenly throwing her arms around his waist making him mess up what he was writing. Sighing his classic *I'm annoyed* sigh, he put his notebook back in his jacket.

Tamaki frowned turning his gaze back to Haruhi.

When the song was over, Haruhi was finally free to maneuver over to where her friends were, panting slightly as her feet were killing her already.

"Are you okay?" Tamaki asked smiling softly at her.

"Yeah, I can't wait until this is over though…"

"Mi-chan!" called a booming voice.

Honey glanced in the direction of his uncle as he came bustling over to him. "Enjoying the party?"

"It's nice," Honey answered.

"How about we put on a show Mi-chan, let the people see our family in action. You can show off the detachment technique," Hasuru said grinning.

"You know as well as I do that our family's fighting style is meant to protect. It's not meant for display or competitions," Honey didn't look happy, and Mori (unconsciously) moved a little closer to him.

They were spared from talking any further because of a booming voice that ripped through the crowd.

"Haruhi!"

When she turned, she saw her father (dressed in male clothes today) hurrying towards her and giving her a hug.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" she asked as he threw his arms around you.

"Some of those Kishon guys came and picked me up and said I had to come here to see you at your ball," he explained. "Though they wouldn't let me dress as a woman for the event… But I saw you come down the stairs and you just looked incredible!"

"That King guy even gave me a tour of the palace too… I saw some pictures of your mother…"

"I still can't believe she never told us…" Haruhi said frowning.

"Yes, well… there is no sense dwelling on that. It won't change anything. So we should just be happy that you have more family now right? Being a Princess I'm sure your mother must have had cousins and uncles and aunts… And you have a Grandfather now, something you didn't get from my side due to my parents having passed away when I was young. I can't wait for you to get to know them." he said smiling.

Haruhi smiled a little. She hadn't thought of that, and she supposed she really should look at this as gaining family…

"Well," Kyoya said taking a step forward he removed a pair of flats from his inside pocket. "Haruhi put these on…"

Looking slightly confused, she put them on as she was asked and was actually quite relieved to be wearing them.

"Now that your culturally significant dances are out of the way, may I be the first of your friends to ask you to dance?" Kyoya asked holding out his hand.

"Wha!?" Tamaki looked clearly angry in the background and he was turning to each of the host club members in turn to ask for help, but none of them moved.

"Uh, sure?" Haruhi said nervously and Kyoya took her hand leading her back out onto the dance floor.

Renge looked a bit upset too…

"What is he doing!?" Tamaki snapped though not loudly.

"Well, he's fulfilling his orders isn't he?" Hikaru said frowning.

"His orders!?" Tamaki snapped.

"Boss," Kaoru said folding his arms and glaring at him. "Our parents asked us to do whatever it takes to marry Haruhi. You didn't forget already did you? Clearly he's working on that…"

"But Haruhi's dating me!" Tamaki snapped.

"It doesn't matter who she's dating… It matters who she marries… Face it boss, you're no longer the only person in the running for that," Hikaru said frowning.

Back on the dance floor Haruhi was finding dancing much easier without her heels, but was finding it hard to dance the girl's role in a dance. Kyoya seemed to understand this and was taking great care to lead her correctly so she didn't mess up or turn in the wrong direction.

"I bet your feet feel much better without the heels don't they?" he asked smiling.

"You're being strangely nice to me," Haruhi said looking up at him just as the song ended.

"But of course, you're a Princess now," he said as their dance ended. He took her hand lightly holding it up to his own lips before whispering the same words once again, "And I have something to gain…"

Then he placed a light kiss on her gloved hand.

* * *

"It's you," said a soft voice from behind their group. The fuming Tamaki took no notice of it. He was staring so intently as Haruhi and Kyoya danced. Everyone else however turned.

Beignet stood blinking up at Ryoji looking at him through her spectacles.

"I'm very… very sorry Sir. But… can I hug you?"

Ryoji actually looked around to make sure she wasn't talking to someone else. "Me?"

She nodded.

"Uh… I guess so…" he said nervously.

The Host Club looked rather confused, and even Honey took his eyes off Haruhi to watch their interaction. Her smile widened and she walked up to him wrapping her arms around his torso, placing her head against his chest.

"Uh…" he patted her head. "What's your name?"

"Beignet," she answered softly.

"Um, it's nice to meet you?" his tone ended in an inflection making it sound like a question.

She let go of him just as Haruhi was walking back over.

"No one else is getting the next dance!" Tamaki exclaimed. "I'm next! Me!"

He grabbed Haruhi's hand before she had even made it back to the group.

Though everyone was paying attention to Ryoji and Beignet, even Kyoya. Though he had walked in on the end of this strange interaction.

"I feel as though I know Kotoko personally," she said softly. "To meet the man that heart fell so fondly in love with. It is truly an honor Sir…"

"Uh… thanks?" he answered.

With that she turned. Two guards (who they hadn't noticed before because they stood so silently) were standing not too far away, and as she walked by they followed like shadows.

"Did she know my Kotoko?" Haruhi's father asked looking confused.

"She looks to be about the same age as Haruhi?" Kaoru asked frowning. "If that's the case, I doubt she would have ever met Kotoko…"

* * *

Tamaki was jealous, this was obvious. Haruhi was frowning up at him as he danced with her looking rather moody.

"Senpai," Haruhi said after a short time of awkward silence. "We're dating."

"Yeah," Tamaki snapped.

"So it doesn't matter what Kyoya or Keishin tries. I'm dating you," she said smiling. "So don't worry so much, okay?"

He looked down at her bright and optimistic face, and he himself couldn't help but smile. "Okay."

* * *

Honey was rather surprised that no one tried to attack Haruhi during the ball. He had expected at least one attempt. Though he supposed it might have been too crowded there, and whoever it is that is trying to hurt her, maybe they didn't want to risk it then.

He laid back on his bed after the ball was over and Haruhi was safely in her room. He didn't bother putting on pajamas, he was too tired, and his injuries were aching. So he removed his tie letting it fall on the floor before drifting off to sleep…

"Mi-chan," his Grandmother said to him softly. "Why are you crying?"

He thought he had hidden himself well under the porch, but his Grandmother had found him anyway. She was wearing a kimono and had her long grey strands pulled back into a beautiful bun.

"Ta… Takashi… He pledged his hands to me…" Honey sobbed.

"And that makes you sad?" she questioned her eyebrows raised, frowning slightly as she knelt beside the porch.

"Uh-huh…" Honey said through his sniffles…

"Whatever for?"

"Be… because I… I don't wanna be mean to him!"

Her eyebrow rose questionably. "My goodness Mi-chan… Why on Earth would you ever be mean to him?"

"Because… Ma…Masters beat their servants… Like on… on Dogami…"

Dogami was an old show that featured ancient Samurai's, and in it their featured a Master who was very cruel to his last remaining servant after a brutal war. His Grandmother snickered at that and held her hands out for Mitsukuni to run into them. Which he did… He never passed up a chance to hug his Grandmother.

"Oh sweetie," she said softly. "Just because your Takashi's Master now, it doesn't mean you have to be mean to him. No, being someone's Master means just the opposite."

Honey blinked looking up at her. "It does?"

"It does!" she said. "Because you are his Master, that means you should be very kind to Takashi, and as his Master you should protect him from harm. This is what Masters are supposed to do. They serve and they protect, just like our Family swears to do for anyone in danger. Don't you remember the story of the Monkey King?"

"I never heard that one," Honey answered.

"Well then," she said picking him up she walked over to their swinging Garden bench and sat rocking him softly. "Once upon a time the King of the Monkeys lived by a river and the human King of a nearby country decided to go hunting. What he wanted to hunt more than anything was Monkeys. So the human King and a handful of his men traveled to the forest and found the tree where the Monkeys lived. The Monkey King in order to save his followers climbed high into the tree and used the powers granted to him by the heavens to stretch really far to a tree way across a raging river. One by one the Monkey's quickly climbed across him as though he were a bridge. Thus the Human King ordered his men to shoot the Monkey King with its arrow."

Honey watched her listening intently.

"Now, the Human King was sure that the Monkey King would let go in order to avoid the arrow and that would leave all the Monkey's who hadn't yet crossed to safety helpless and able to be hunted. When the arrow was fired, it impaled the Monkey King in his stomach. Though bleeding and in pain, he did not let go. So the Human King ordered that his men fire another arrow. This one impaled his chest, but still he did not let go. When the last Monkey crossed to safety and the humans had fired all the arrows they brought, the Monkey King (at last) fell into the river and the Human King ordered that he be retrieved. His men pulled the Monkey King ashore and he asked, "Why Monkey King? Why did you let arrows impale you? You could have let go and swam to the safety." And the Monkey King responded, "But that is not what Kings do. We are Kings for a reason, and that reason is to protect and serve our people. We would not be made Kings if God did not see us fit to protect our own." Now, the Human King was so moved by the Monkey Kings words, that he went home and became the best King to ever live, because he then lived for his people and served them with the power granted to him by God."

"…" Honey blinked as the story ended, and she smiled at him.

"You look confused Mi-chan…"

"Did the Monkey King die?"

"No. However, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the people he served, and he remained forever far away from them on the other side of the very wide river. While his injuries did not kill him, he was far too wounded to stretch that far again, and there was no way anyone but the Monkey King in his fit state could have swam across with the current as it was. He never saw his subjects again, but at least they were safe."

"That's sad…" Honey said frowning.

"Kings and Masters are very similar Mi-chan. You should be willing to fight and protect your servants, friends and everyday citizens as well."

"I am!" Honey said happily. "I'll protect Takashi and my friends with my life!"

His grandmother smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Now, let's go back inside. I have to talk to your mother about the sort of programming she's letting you watch."

"Huh?" Honey blinked. From that day until Honey was much older, he was prevented from watching Dogami.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been awhile, but I've had this mostly done for some time. So I wanted to finish and post it. Hope you guys enjoy!


	4. The Story of Usa-chan

"Senpai?"

Honey felt a soft hand on his shoulder shaking him and he opened his eyes to find Haruhi smiling at him. "Morning."

Honey sat up rubbing his eyes. "You didn't have to wake me up Haru-chan."

"Well, no one else was brave enough to," Haruhi explained pointing over to the door where the twins and Tamaki were peeking cautiously around the corner. "We're all going to breakfast and our plane leaves this afternoon. So I wanted to hurry."

Her tone sounded quite happy, and Honey got the impression she would be the happiest of all of them to leave this country.

"Okay, I'll get dressed and meet you downstairs. Is Mori in the hallway?"

"Yeah," Haruhi answered.

At the sound of his name Mori leaned into the room. "Could you escort Haruhi downstairs for me."

Haruhi sighed. "Guys, I don't need an escort everywhere."

However, Mori nodded placing his hands on her shoulders he walked her out of the room. The rest of the Host club accompanied her.

With difficulty, Honey got dressed and went downstairs to find everyone including Haruhi's grandfather, her father, and Keishin all seated at the long table with the host club put at the end. He took the seat beside Haruhi silently (as he was supposed to do).

"I really wish you would stay my dear," her Grandfather was saying.

"She can't stay, she's on a study abroad trip in America and then she's coming back to Japan," Ryōuji explained.

"I think we can all agree that in light of the situation, this has to change," her Grandfather pointed out.

"Uh," Haruhi tried to interject as Keishin interrupted her.

"She is our Princess, she will live here. We have excellent schools and we can hire tutors for any subject she would want to learn."

"Listen I'm—"

"My Haruhi is—"

And it just got worse from there. The rest of the host club remained further down the table watching the situation.

"They're not even giving her a chance to speak…" Tamaki said frowning.

"Well, how many things were decided for us in our own lives," Kyoya explained sipping his drink. "Haruhi is going to have to learn that with station people have to make sacrifices and do what is expected of them rather than what they wish to do."

"You think she should stay here don't you?" Kaoru asked frowning.

"I think she should do what is best for her family and this country that she is now an heir to."

CRASH!

Everyone's head turn in Honey's direction whose hand was held out to the empty space beside him. It seemed that he had purposely dropped a glass to call everyone's attention. "Haru-chan has been trying to say something…" he explained in a serious tone. Then he glanced towards her smiling. "What did you want to say?"

"Oh…" she said nervously. She thought Honey had gone a little far with breaking the glass, but he had tried calling their attention with words, and they hadn't listened. "I'm going to finish my study abroad, and then return to Ouran. After that… I'm not sure what I'll do, but I will put a lot of thought into all my options."

Ryōuji smiled, and the King took a deep breath. "I suppose that is fine. However, your curriculum will have to change. There are certain things a Princess should know and you won't learn it from your study abroad or your time at Ouran. I will send with you some tutors and body guards, as well as some servants…"

"Uh, no I don't really want all that," Haruhi explained.

"Nonsense, these are things a Princess needs," he explained.

When breakfast was over, and Haruhi had given up trying to reason with her Grandfather. She went upstairs to find all her things already packed, and two women in her room finishing it up.

"Oh hello Princess," one of them said turning around and curtseying. "My name Rin. I am your personal servant. So please don't hesitate to ask me for anything."

"Oh… um… I don't really need a servant, so you can—"

"Oh no," Rin said shaking her head. "The King has asked that I see to your every need. I will be accompanying you to America. I'm so excited to see what it's like!"

As it turned out (and just as he had said) Rin wasn't the only person accompanying her to America. Four men dressed in a similar manner to the President's secret service were awaiting her, her father, and the host club when they got to the plane.

"These are your personal body guards," the King explained.

"Uh, I have Honey for that," she explained to him. She didn't like the idea of Honey having to follow her around everywhere, but if she had to have one of them, Honey was obviously the better option than 4 men in black looking characters.

"Yes, well. I will feel much better if my own men were on the case of protecting you as well," the King explained. There was a small pause and he suddenly hugged her. "I'm so glad to have discovered you. I've been missing my daughter so much, and having you in my life now… It's the next best thing to getting her back…"

Haruhi frowned, and she felt it best not to argue with him. Deep down, she was happy to know she had more family, and she wished she had gotten to discuss her mother more with him. This situation would have been perfect if her grandfather hadn't turned out to be a King. The two could have talked more as people and family rather than King and the future heir to his throne.

Her father was given a private jet ride back to Japan. So they said their goodbyes before she, the host club, and these newcomers all piled in to another private jet to head back to the U.S.

Haruhi was stopped before she sat down as her personal servant rushed ahead and put a pillow on her seat. "Uh… thanks," she said awkwardly sitting down. Her servant sat beside her and the four service men sat on either side of the two of them. Leaving the host club to pile in the seats behind her. Honey took the seat directly behind her with Mori beside him. The twins who seemed to be taking the presence of the service men as a personal insult sat as far back in the private plane as they could. Tamaki had tried to convince her servant to move but she refused, that is until Haruhi asked her nicely to please let Tamaki have the seat and frowning a bit she got up and moved over to a window seat.

Kyoya too had taken a seat far away from the others but that seemed to be because he wanted read something in peace.

"Haru-chan!" Honey piped up from the seat behind her. "I downloaded some cool songs for the plane ride. I forgot to use them on the ride here, but I want you to listen and tell me what you think okay?"

"Uh, alright," Haruhi said taking the headphones he held out to her. Honey put the MP3 on the song he wanted her to listen to and then sat back.

"Okay, I don't think she'll hear us now if we talk quietly," Honey said looking up at Mori.

He turned to Honey, he was pretty sure he knew what Honey wanted to discuss even before he started.

"I need to get better as soon as possible," he said looking down at his arm. "I'm gonna start training when we get back, and try to get better use of this arm."

"And your ribs."

"Those heal on their own," Honey said. "My arm is what's most important, I need it to punch."

"…"

"And I think her Grandfather has realized it too. That someone has been trying to hurt her, that's probably why he sent these guys with her. I guess he doesn't feel that I can protect her."

"I will help you Mitsukuni," Takashi explained.

"Takashi, that's not the point. Haru-chan is my responsibility now, I've never been in service to someone before and I have to take this seriously. My families' honor and Haru-chan's safety depend on it."

"…"

"We can't go back to the way we set it up before heading here. I don't want you putting your life on hold because of the decisions I've made. I need to be able to be near Haru-chan constantly."

"…"

"Being Haru-chan's hands, I need to protect her. I'm just not going to be able to do that while being in school too."

Mori's frown (that he often wore) deepened slightly.

"First thing Monday, I'm going to fill out the paperwork needed to drop out of school."

"OH NO YOU'RE NOT!" Haruhi exclaimed loudly suddenly turning around in her seat to look at Honey who seemed taken aback.

"Uh, you heard?"

"Just that last bit, the song was ending just as you said it," she said handing him back his headset. "Honey-senpai, if you drop out of school on account of me, I'll never EVER forgive you!"

It was strange to see Haruhi this upset about something.

Honey blinked at her frowning slightly and trying to pull his cutest face possible.

"And don't give me that look, it's not going to work!"

Honey frowned even more.

"Look, I have these guys too," she explained. "So when you're in school they can just look after me."

"But…"

"None of this is really ideal," she said. "But I'd rather have these body guard guys then see you have to give up and leave school for me. So just stay in school okay. That's an order!"

Honey looked rather annoyed, and Mori's frown held the remnants of an ever so tiny smirk.

"Fine," Honey answered.

Haruhi grinned at him before turning back around in her seat, and shortly after the plane took off.

* * *

Trying to go back to the life they were living in the U.S. was difficult and to be honest, next to impossible.

Haruhi's new servant Rin seemed to be taking her job with the upmost seriousness. Every little thing Haruhi wanted to do, Rin would jump up and do it for her. When Haruhi went to her school Rin stood at the door and looked absolutely delighted if Haruhi dropped her pencil so she could rush to her side and pick it up for her. Meanwhile referring to her as Princess. Which caused other kids in her class to make snarky comments, which would make on Kaoru throw things at them.

The body guards didn't help the situation. One stood in on every class, and one stood outside the door. While the other two seemed to patrol around the building. Since Haruhi did not allow Honey to quit school to be near her, most mornings he was in class. So he spent the afternoons with her as well.

Early on it became very apparent that the body guards did not like Honey-senpai being around her, and she overheard them talking about Honey whenever he wasn't there.

"What makes him think a kid is going to be a better guard than us?"

Haruhi had to snicker whenever she heard those comments because she was pretty sure that they were not aware of two important factors. One that despite his appearance, Honey was not a child, and two, that Honey was an heir to the greatest martial arts families on the planet and had thus been training his entire life.

Even worse than all the unwanted guards/servants she now had, was the additional classes. At night tutors would come. Each day of the week a different tutor came to teach Haruhi a different aspect of royal life that her Grandfather had deemed necessary for her to know. Three weeks into this process, and it was clear this was taking it's toll.

Today was history day.

"And your great Uncle Kyuroh married…"

"Uh, Lady Errisah?" Haruhi answered looking miserable as they had been at this for hours now.

"No, Lady Errisah married your cousin. Kyuroh's third son. Remember?"

"Oh yeah," she said frowning looking tired. The rest of the host club sat in the living room chatting occasionally looking into the kitchen where Haruhi and the tutor were working.

"Hey, can't she just be done for today?" Kaoru asked angrily.

"Please do not interrupt the Princess while she is working," snapped the tutor.

Tamaki got up walking over to the entrance to the kitchen. "Miss, she hasn't even started her homework for her other classes yet…"

"Her other classes are not as important as my lesson," the tutor snapped.

Two of the body guards moved to block the kitchen entryway and Tamaki backed away nervously…

"You guys realize it's an open kitchen and we can still see in it," Hikaru pointed out to the body guards.

They stood silently without answering.

"Look it's late," Haruhi said looking absolutely miserable and tired as she got to her feet. "I have to go to sleep now…"

"We still have one more chapter scheduled for tonight," the tutor explained.

"I can't," Haruhi said yawning. The body guards moved as she headed to her room.

"Haruhi, what about your homework for class tomorrow?" Tamaki asked.

"I'll… I'll have to do it in the morning…" with that she disappeared behind her bedroom doors and her body guards moved to the door to stand beside it.

Tamaki frowned.

"She can't keep doing this," Hikaru pointed out watching the tutor pack up her things (rather angrily).

"She's gonna crash," Kaoru said frowning at the door.

Tamaki frowned as he stared at the door she disappeared behind, then he walked over and grabbed her school bag from the corner.

"These are Haruhi's notes," he said pulling out her notebooks. "These are her assignments due tomorrow. If we all take a subject, we can have her homework done in time for tomorrow."

"Isn't that cheating?" Karou asked.

"We can't let Haruhi fall behind, but at the same time she really needs this time to sleep. If she gets up early enough to finish her work, then that'll only give her about four hours' sleep. Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai. You guys work on her math homework. Use her math notes to trace her hand writing. Kaoru, Hikaru, you two work on her French assignment. I'll get her history and Kyoya can do the last subject."

And thus the boys stayed up for the next two hours doing her work, and Honey snuck into her room through the window (since the body guards wouldn't let them in through the door), and he turned off her alarm so she could sleep.

Tamaki was going to make sure she got through this. Not matter what!

* * *

"Whaaa!" screamed Haruhi as she woke up bolting from her room. She came to a halt finding the entire host club in their kitchen. Breakfast set out.

"Good morning Haru-chan," Honey said through a mouth full of his breakfast muffin.

"AH! You guys knew I had to be up early. If you knew it was so late why didn't you wake me!?"

"Fret not Haruhi," Tamaki said smiling. "We did your homework for you and have breakfast ready."

"Uh…" she looked down at her back which Tamaki handed to her. She opened it to read some of the work they had done. "Guys, that's really nice of you, but it's cheating. This isn't my work. I can't turn it in…"

"I kept the answers on the half I did to a level your teachers would expect you to perform at," Kyoya explained.

"And we traced letters from your notes to make sure it was in your handwriting," the twins explained.

"Takashi and I did your Math homework," Honey explained smiling. "You should get a good grade."

"Guys… really I—"

"Haruhi," Tamaki said interrupting her. "These aren't important assignments, and you can review and redo them yourself when you have more time. I… I didn't want you to fall behind. Your schooling is important, and you looked so tired."

Haruhi felt her face go red from the severe look of compassion Tamaki was sending her way, and she caved. "Fine, I'll turn it in. But never again alright."

Tamaki grinned. "We've also prepared breakfast for you," he explained stepping to the side he revealed her breakfast."

"Where is that Rin girl?"

"We sent her on a ridiculous errand that should take her a few hours," the twins said. "In the meantime we can head to school without her."

Kaoru leaned in close to Haruhi, "Those bodyguards were harder to try to ditch, so sadly they're still here."

"That's alright," she said smiling. "Thank you guys."

Haruhi had a nice breakfast with her friends and they were heading to their school in relative peace. That was until.

"He's supposed to be her protector and yet he's carrying a stuffed bunny around…" whispered one of her guards to the other.

"There is no way he's as strong as the boss says," snickered the other.

Honey was walking with Usa-chan on his shoulders. He had made a deal with Mori that he wouldn't take it with him as often as he used to, but it seemed today was one of the days he got to. Even though they were speaking low, it was loud enough for them to hear. Honey hand been looking relatively cheerful until he heard that and the smile on his face fell a bit.

"Hey, that's enough," Haruhi said stopping in mid-step to look at them. She had a hard time standing up for herself, but standing up for her friends. She had no problem doing that. "If you can't say anything nice—"

"Our apologies your highness, but we just don't see a reason for this little kid being here."

"For your information, he's eighteen," Haruhi explained.

One of the bodyguards turned to him looking rather shocked, while the other laughed her words off as though sure she was joking.

"It's not a joke," she snapped.

"It isn't?" he said. "Well if that's the case, then he doesn't need to be carrying this thing around does he?"

Quick as a flash the man reached out grabbing Usa-chan from him, and he threw it over the bridge they were on into oncoming traffic below.

Even quicker Mori lunged forward jumping over the railing after it. Everyone gasped and the entire hostclub ran to the edge just in time to see Mori grab Usa-chan and land on top of a truck. He rolled a bit and looked for a second like he was going to roll off the edge of it. Only he grabbed onto a handle at last minute just as the car went under the bridge and disappeared from view.

Quickly the hostclub rushed to the other side of the bridge to see the truck slow down. It had obviously heard the noise of Mori landing on it and it stopped to investigate.

They hurried across the bridge and ran down to meet Mori on the street below.

"Mori-senpai!" they called hurrying over to him as he waved goodbye to the truck driver.

"Takashi!" Honey exclaimed looking worried and he blinked as he noticed a cut on Mori's arm.

"Are you stupid?" One of the bodyguards asked.

"Who risks their life for a toy?" the other exclaimed.

"Who throws someone's possessions over a bridge?" Haruhi snapped.

Honey walked up to him removing a handkerchief from his pocket, he tied it around Mori's arm. "You shouldn't have done that, it was reckless."

"I'm not ready for you to stop carrying him just yet…" Mori answered handing Usa-chan back to him.

Smiling Honey kissed his dear toy and hugged it, and Haruhi noticed even in the midst of the twins chewing out her bodyguards, that Mori blushed slightly as he did so.

"C'mon guys," Honey said. "You're all gonna be late if we don't go."

Grumbling the twins stopped yelling at them and they all headed off again, now in almost complete silence.

Honey and Mori didn't have class today. Their college schedules were not as extensive as their High school ones, so Honey and Mori hung back in the school yard to wait for Haruhi's break. The two of them sat together under a tree with Honey clutching Usa-chan and smiling softly. This was a secret the rest of the host club didn't know about…

* * *

"Do you like him?" a young Honey asked Mori while they were in the woods.

"Unn…" Mori answered briefly.

"This is Usa-chan, my Grandmother made him for me," Honey explained as he pulled a knife out from the boots he was wearing. Mori watched slightly confused. He had always known Honey to love and adore his Grandmother, so what he did next really confused him. Honey pushed the knife into the bunny's back and pulled it down creating a large split where stuffing started pushing it's way out.

"This," Honey said taking out a small wooden heart. "This is a heart I made in woodshop."

Reaching in his boot again, he pulled out a large black marker and wrote on the piece of wood.

Honey *heart* Mori

He held it out to Mori. "Kiss it!" he commanded.

Still confused Mori leaned forward and kissed the heart. Then Honey did the same before he pushed it into the cut he had made. He hurried over to his bag and grabbed from it a needle and thread (which was the same color as Usa-chan.

Mori watched for quite a while in silence and Honey sealed the cut up, and Usa-chan looked good as new. "Do you understand what I did?" Honey asked Mori smiling.

Mori shook his head.

"This is Usa-chan. He is now a symbol of our love. When I hug Usa-chan, or kiss Usa-chan. That is really me hugging or kissing you. I'm going to carry Usa-chan until we are no longer in love. So if you ever decide you don't love me, then tell me, and I won't carry him anymore. But until then, this is our love, and I'll keep it forever. Okay? It's our secret."

"…"

Honey smiled before turning Usa-chan to face him and he placed a kiss on it. "I love you Usa-chan."

Mori felt his face grow warm, knowing that that phrase was really directed at him. Smiling Honey grabbed Mori's hand leading him away from their secret part of the woods where their love was officially declared.

When they were getting ready to graduate, he had requested that Honey carry Usa-chan less and less so that he could forget him, and they could both move on from a love they know will never happen. However, when Mori saw Usa-chan falling, he had panicked. He wasn't quite ready for Honey to stop carrying Usa-chan around with him… He just wasn't…

* * *


	5. Haruhi's Bad Bodyguards

When Haruhi's lunch break started everyone sat together in the school yard to eat. Her official body guards not standing too far away.

"At least now things start getting back to normal," Tamaki was saying after the shock of Haruhi being a Princess was expressed again. "Only now, Haruhi will get used to happy Princess life, instead of regular commoner life."

"I don't see what anything has to change," Haruhi frowned.

"Don't worry," Tamaki said smiling at her making her heart beat a bit faster from his glance. "We'll help you Haruhi. We'll teach you what it means to be a Princess."

"Well, if we're gonna help her then we'll have to work on her wardrobe," Kaoru said. "You can't go around in your commoner clothing anymore…"

"And Tamaki, you should give her dance lessons with heels on. She was just awful at the ball."

"Speaking of the ball, remember that awkward encounter between Haruhi's father and that girl?"

Haruhi looked up from her food, "What awkward encounter?"

"Yeah, it was still really weird to see your X-fiancé there," Honey said glancing up at Takashi before taking a large bite of the cupcake in his bento box.

The twins who had both taken a drink nearly choked on it. "WHAT!" Kaoru snapped shocked.

"Mori-senpai, we didn't know you had a fiancé…"

"Who?"

"That girl," Honey explained. "Beignet"

He pulled Usa-chan closer frowning slightly. "Any spouse of a martial artist has to be able to pass a basic martial arts exam."

Mori nodded in agreement as Honey continued, "It was a part of the clause for their engagement. Beignet didn't want to practice or even try despite Takashi being willing to teach her. So the engagement was called off, that made her really angry. She wanted to be accepted without putting in the work…"

"Really?" Hikaru blinked. A slight frown on his face.

"Okay, do any of you people have any X fiancés, any current fiancés or any sort of people in your lives that we should know about? Let's get this out in the open right now…"

"Hhmm… well I broke up with Rei-chan…" Honey said through another bite.

"Rei-chan…" Kaoru repeated thinking. "Oh the black magic club girl… That's right you two _were_ dating I almost forgot…"

"Why did you two break up Honey-senpai?" Haruhi turned to him genuinely concerned.

"Well, because I pledged to be your hands…" Honey explained.

Haruhi frowned glancing up at Mori who had the tiniest remnants of a smile on his face. That's right, she had seen them kiss. They seemed to be in love, yet Honey-senpai have been dating Reiko Kanazuki. She also had almost forgotten. Why would Honey have agreed to date Reiko if he clearly loved Mori-senpai? Did he really break up with her just because he had pledged his hands to her? Normally, this would be the moment she would scold Honey for sacrificing something on her behalf. Something she absolutely didn't want Honey to do now that he was serving her, but she had the feeling that Honey had done that because of Mori and not her. Honey seemed to want to keep whatever was going on between him and Mori a secret, so she didn't want to ask him in front of everyone.

"How did she take it?"

"Um…" Honey frowned. "As you can expect… She wasn't happy, and she put lots of curses on me… But Takashi has another fiancé that his family is looking into, so they might make the announcement sometime soon…"

"What?" Kaoru frowned. "Isn't all that going a bit too fast? You break up with one, now you have another…"

"Well, Kao-chan, we're adults now. Our families are thinking about our futures and who is going to be at our sides when we officially become the heads of our families…" Honey explained. "These are important decisions that can't be taken lightly. You'll understand when you're older."

Kaoru frowned. It was rather awkward to be told you'll understand when you're older, from a guy who genuinely looked like he should be in middle school. "Alright Honey-senpai, explain this to me. Why is it Mori-senpai gets to have a fiancé when he pledged his hands to you, years ago, but you had to "break-up" with the girl you were seeing when you pledged your hands to Haruhi?"

"Because we're both martial artist from martial arts families, but Haruhi is a Princess. I'm expected to serve her a bit more seriously and with more commitment then Takashi is expected to show to me," Honey explained.

"Is that so?" Kaoru sighed…

Hikaru turned (somewhat moodily towards Tamaki and Haruhi) "What about your guy's love life? What are your plans now?"

Both of them froze staring blankly ahead.

"Well," Tamaki said nervously… "Actually, I was just thinking, since everything has calmed down… We could try going on a date. Just… you know… the two of us."

"Uh… yeah," Haruhi said smiling.

"There you are!" shouted a voice from across the field. Haruhi's servant Rin came bounding moodily up the walkway towards them. "My Princess, I've been looking everywhere for you…"

"It's a weekday, your first thought wasn't school?" Hikaru teased grinning.

"And you two! I am no longer obey any orders that don't come from Princess Haruhi herself!" she snapped. "There is no such thing as "Snipe stew!" I couldn't find it anywhere!"

The twins started laughing.

She sat down besides Haruhi on the grass looking agitated.

"I'm sorry…" Haruhi said to her smiling.

"It is alright Princess; it isn't your fault. It's those identical brats who are to blame…"

"So how about we plan something for tomorrow, on Saturday?" Tamaki asked.

"Alright," Haruhi answered genuinely looking forward to it.

"Sorry, but Princess Haruhi is too busy this weekend. She will be booked with lessons and she has a number of engagement conferences to attend."

"Engagement conferences?" Haruhi said turning to Rin looking confused.

"Yes, your Grandfather has found a number of potential suitors for you, and he would like you to meet them and tell him your opinions of each."

"Uh… you're not serious," Haruhi said looking rather panicked. "I'm… I'm dating Tamaki-senpai!"

"Well, regardless, your Grandfather has to choose the best potential future King for his country, and… forgive me… but that clearly isn't Tamaki…" Rin explained. "You're welcome to fool around with him if you wish, but you'll have to start taking your relationships more seriously eventually. So it would be best to end whatever _this_ is, as soon as possible."

A sudden chill echoed around their group at Rin's insult.

"Rin-chan," Honey said. "Haru-chan really likes Tama-chan, I think they would make a good King and Queen."

"Ugh, forgive me, Haninozuka-san," she said glaring at him. "But you're not really in any position to offer insight to the situation. You are a servant just as I am. YOUR opinion does not matter."

"You seem to be offering lots of opinions," Kaoru snapped, crossing his legs he glared at her.

"These aren't opinions," Rin snapped. "They are facts. I am simply informing our Princess of what is expected of her."

"Haruhi's grandfather doesn't seem like a bad guy, I'm sure he'll accept that Haruhi's dating our Lord if she just tells him."

"He already knows," Rin explained. "He received extensive reports from Keishin when Haruhi was discovered. Her grades, her school, your host club, who she is dating. The King was informed of everything, however, who Haruhi marries will be based on his decision. Though he is kind enough to ask for her thoughts on each suitor. Which is more than most Kings would offer their heirs."

"So… Haruhi's spouse will be chosen for her…" Tamaki said looking terrified.

A sudden image of Haruhi in a grand wedding dress standing at the altar with an unknown figure came into his mind. His eyes suddenly got tearful.

"Personally, if my opinion did matter, I would say Kyoya would be the best choice. He would make a wonderful King," Rin said smiling at him, her face slightly flushed.

"Kyoya!" everyone gasped.

"Kyoya isn't even one of her suitors!" Kaoru said sighing.

"Actually," Kyoya said setting down his bento box, he placed his chopsticks on top smiling slightly. "I'm her 10 o'clock appointment for this Saturday."

"WHAAA!"

"Kyoya-senpai!" the twins snapped.

"How can you do that to Haruhi?" Hikaru snapped.

"Don't you care about her? And what about our Lord?" Kaoru frowned.

"I don't know why you're acting surprised. I received an order from my Father and I intend to see that order out until the end," he said. "My friends, or her current relationships are not relevant to me. Especially since her Grandfather will be making the decision. I don't have to impress her, I have to impress him, and my skills are quite impressive."

Haruhi frowned staring him down.

"Kyoya-senpai… I'm not going to pick you; you know that?"

"Open your ears Haruhi, it's not your decision…" Kyoya explained.

"Yes it is! My life is my decision, and I'll marry whoever I choose!" Haruhi said defiantly getting to her feet. She turned on her heel and began heading towards the front of the school.

Honey got up hurrying after her to make sure she was alright. Her "bodyguards," adjusted their positions so they could view her from where she headed.

"Now you did it," Kaoru frowned.

"Could you not do this Kyoya-senpai? I'm sure there are plenty of girls your Father would be proud to see you marry. You don't even love her."

"Love is irrelevant when it comes to marriage," Kyoya said frowning. "Besides my Father didn't tell me to go after any girl, he told me to wed Haruhi. So that is what I'm going to do."

Tamaki frowned, "I doubt that… I'm certain I can reason with her Grandfather. If I talk to him. I'm sure he'll see me as a competent man, and someday. If she agrees and wishes it, Haruhi and I will marry."

There was silence as everyone watched Tamaki's serious face, which suddenly erupted into glee. "Then we'll have two children! One boy and one girl! We'll live in her palace, but also spend summers in France with my Mother, and of course other months in Japan so we can see our Parents and my Grandmother… Though that's an awful lot of moving around… Maybe we should just pick one location…"

"Kishon," Kyoya snapped. "She's the Princess of Kishon, and thus you would live in Kishon if you were to get married. My God, and you want to be King of this country!"

"I don't want to be King of Kishon… I want to marry Haruhi… Her station, Princess or not. Does not change the fact that I love her," Tamaki said serious once again. "Or that I want to spend the rest of my life with her…"

There was a pause when suddenly a nearby gunshot was heard. The hostclub froze and the sound of shattering glass met their ears. It wasn't too far off either…"

"Didn't that come from the direction of where Haruhi and Honey headed?" Hikaru asked looking worried.

They all jumped to their feet in unison (including Rin) and took off to where they saw Haruhi and Honey disappear.

* * *

Haruhi seemed to be letting off some steam by mumbling under her breath, and when she spotted that Honey had followed her she frowned at him. "You don't think my Grandfather would really make me marry someone I don't want to do you?"

Honey put one hand in the pocket of his sleeveless hoodie. The thumb of his other hand looped in his belt loop. His stance and expression appearing more grown up than he normally did. "You have to understand Haru-chan. Kyoya comes from a life and a family where he has had next to no say in what he does or where he goes. The Host club was probably one of the first things in which he had legitimate power in deciding on. So this is how he believes all high class families work."

He smiled leaning against the building, "But if you look at the twins, they've had pretty much nothing but freedoms, whereas Tama-chan, Takashi, and I fall in the middle of those two lifestyles. We had freedoms, but we also had and have a lot of things decided for us too. The more power, station, and money a family has, the more they have to do to uphold it. Every one of us has been forced to do something by their parents that they didn't want to do. I'm sure the twins are included even though they have more freedoms than the rest of us. I don't know where your family falls, and I don't know your Grandfather well enough to tell you. But… I think you should be prepared for the fact that you might not get a say in the person you marry."

Haruhi's face seemed to drain of color and she looked genuinely scared. For some reason, hearing Honey say it, made it seem more real.

"What sort of things," Haruhi said grimly. "Did your parents have you do, that you didn't want to…"

Honey's face got uncharacteristically serious looking. "You're my Master now, so I have to answer any question you ask. But I would prefer not to tell you..."

He walked up to Haruhi placing a hand on her cheek and smiling, "I don't want to see this cute face get anymore frightened…"

Since she had known Honey, there were moments here and there, when he would say something unexpectedly dark, and for the first time she realized. This was probably because he had at some point in his life experienced some very dark things…

"Honey-senpai…" she said staring down at him, his hand still on her cheek.

"There you are…"

Haruhi and Honey turned to find a girl with mid-length black hair and a green dress with a cropped black jacket standing there. At first Haruhi didn't recognize her, but Honey did instantly.

"Rei-chan…" he said blinking at her. His voice normal and cute once again.

"You are the one who took my Honey away from me…" she said frowning.

"Uh… Rei-chan, it wasn't like that…" Honey said nervously.

"For that, I will curse you so that you burn in Hell forever…" Reiko said reaching in her jacket for a Talisman in which to curse her.

"She's got a weapon!" shouted one of Haruhi's Body guards as he hurried towards them. He reached in his own jacket pulling out a gun and he aimed it straight at Reiko.

"Rei-chan!" Honey called rushing forward he pushed her out of the way just in time, thought the bullet bypassed her and the window of the school's gym shattered.

Honey looked down at Reiko, who he had knocked to the ground to save her live. "Are you alright Rei-chan?"

She looked up at him, nodding. Honey spun around making a bee-line for the guard with the gun, and the Host Club came around the corner just as Honey did a spinning kick and knocked it out of his hand.

He landed on the ground glaring up at the Guard.

"Her servants' attacking us!" Another guard snapped pulling out his own gun which he aimed at the back of Honey's head.

Mori was too quick for him however. Quick as a flash he had grabbed the man's wrist bringing his hand behind his back taking his gun away with his other hand. While still holding the man securely, Mori emptied the clip onto the ground with the other.

Haruhi had fallen to her knees in shock.

"Why are you pulling out a gun at a children's school?" Honey snapped.

Takashi ran over to Haruhi, "Are you alright?" he asked shakily.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"She was pulling out a weapon, that girl was going to harm our Princess. That is our job, destroy anyone who is going to hurt her."

"Reiko didn't have a weapon! She wasn't going to hurt anyone, and you pulled out yours before you even determined if she had one!"

"I don't need to be taught security by a little brat like you!"

"Stop!" Haruhi snapped. "This is it! I want the four of you to go home! Stop following me, stop protecting me. I don't want you here!"

The guard snickered a bit. "My apologies Princess, but only the King can dismiss us."

Honey got to his feet, "Takashi, will you please go check the gym and make sure no one got hurt from the stray bullet."

He nodded and took of run towards the building. Honey walked back over to Reiko who seemed quite shaken and helped her to her feet. "This is Reiko, she's a classmate from Ouran Academy and she came to visit us."

The Guard shrugged and walked over picking up his gun he put it back in his jacket. The Guard that Mori had subdued was picking up his bullets from the grass. The other two, had been too far away to act, but they were there now.

"I'm sorry Reiko, you sure you're not hurt?" Honey asked smiling up at her.

There were tears in the corner of her eyes, "Haruhi Fujioka… occupies 75% of my hatred. She's the reason we're not together anymore."

"Rei-chan, listen to me. Pledging my hands to Haruhi was my choice. No one else's. However, even if I hadn't have done it. I would still have broken up with you. I'm sorry, I really like you, and you're very cute. But I started dating you in an effort to forget about someone else, and that was wrong of me. I shouldn't have done it, because I wasn't over that other person yet. It was careless, and selfish on my part and there is no one to blame for that besides me. So if you must curse someone, you can curse me okay."

"I came here hoping…"

"I know… I'm sorry, I don't think I can ever make it up to you, but I'll try if you let me."

"…" Reiko started down at him. His cute face… It was so difficult to stay mad at him. "Can we stay friends?"

Honey smiled, "Of course!"

Takashi came hurrying back. "It seems no one was in the gym, but…"

Takashi moved the contents of what he was holding to reveal an injured cat. "I think he was walking by the window and he got clipped by the bullet…"

"Oh no!" Honey said looking worried he went over to it. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll take him home with us and take care of this…" Mori said.

"Oh my God!" snapped the Guard who had pulled out the gun. "It's a fucking cat… Who cares!"

"I know curses of healing," Reiko said.

"I'll google cats and bullet wounds!" Tamaki said pulling out his cell phone.

"No… No, you idiot," Kyoya said frowning. "Put that away."

They seemed to be ignoring the Guards, which made them angry.

They had to stay for a little bit because the police had been called, and the teachers had come out and it had turned into a rather big and unnecessary mess. Mori had gone home ahead of the rest of them to tend to the cat, and the remainder of classes were suspended that day. Honey took a few minutes to say goodbye to Reiko before she got in her families' car and departed.

When they got back they all went to Mori and Honey's apartment. To check on the kitty.

"She already looks happier," Honey said cheerfully.

Mori had bandaged it up and it was sleeping comfortably.

"You're so good with animals Mori-senpai," Haruhi said smiling.

"Yeah," he answered dully as he started cleaning up the mess he had made from caring for it.

Haruhi had ordered her body guards to wait outside, but Rin was in there with them. She was standing at attention not too far away awaiting a moment when she could help Haruhi with the pouring of a tea glass or some other menial task.

They all sat down in Mori's living room to talk.

"They need to go," the Twins said. "We didn't realize they had guns, we thought they were fighters like you guys."

"I don't like guns," Honey said frowning. Resting his chin on Usa-chan's head. "It's a cowardly weapon. No skill at all is needed to use one, and it doesn't matter how skilled the opponent is. With a weapon like those even a skilled warrior could end as simple as…"

Honey made the shape of a gun with his finger and thumb and aimed at the opposite wall. His lips motioned the sound of a gunshot as he pretended to fire it.

"Isn't their anyway to get them to just go home?" Hikaru asked sighing.

"Well, I'm sure his highness would request their immediate return if they were proved to be incompetent, or if their actions were to directly endanger Princess Haruhi."

Haruhi frowned at being addressed as Princess.

Mori put his hand on Honey's head in an effort to make him smile. "I have cake in the fridge."

"Yea! Cake!" Honey called jumping to his feet he hurried over to it.

"Are you suggesting we stage something?" Kaoru asked.

"No not at all," Kyouya said dully without looking up from the computer he was typing on. "However, they are here for a reason. Someone is after Haruhi. If we simply let the bodyguards fail to save her."

"Wha! You want us to let Haruhi get killed!" Tamaki gasped.

"No," Kyouya sighed looking away from his computer and straightening his glasses. "If we let them fail, but Honey succeed in saving her it'll prove to his Highness that Honey-senpai is all that is needed to protect her, and he'll pull those bodyguards because they failed."

"So, give the body guards enough time to fail, before Honey swoops in and succeeds," the twins said. "Not a bad plan, but I can't help but think it could go wrong."

"What are you guys talking about? No one is after me," Haruhi said frowning.

"Uh, well we weren't going to tell you," Kaoru said softly.

"But we think someone was trying to kill you while we were in Kishon." Hikaru added.

A small gasp from the corner and everyone turned to Rin. "Who!? Who would harm Princess Haruhi?"

"We don't know," Hikaru told her.

"Why do you guys say that?" Haruhi asked fully prepared to disprove any point they brought up.

"Well, the plane we arrived on nearly crashed," Hikaru said eying her, while holding up a single finger.

Kaoru held up two fingers, "The ice you went skating on shattered and you and Kyouya-senpai nearly drowned."

"Well, those things could have happened to anyone…" Haruhi explained.

"Really, you think two life or death experiences in the same weekend happening to a visiting newly declared Princess is just a coincidence," Kyouya asked as he closed his computer and joined them at the sectionals.

"A lot of crazy stuff has happened to me since I joined the Host Club. Crazy accidents and weird happenstances happen all the time with us," she explained.

Kyouya smiled. "True. Perhaps it was all a coincidence. I guess we're just being paranoid."

He had one of those looks on his face. The kind he would get when he thought Haruhi wasn't understanding something because of her limited commoner knowledge.

She thought it over a lot after she and Tamaki headed back to her apartment. The body guards, Honey and Mori following them. Honey and Mori had been sleeping in Haruhi's living room since they got back.

Perhaps it was true. Perhaps someone really was out to get her. Perhaps she would indeed have to marry someone she didn't love. Maybe Kyoya… maybe someone else… Then Honey… Her mind drifted back to Honey's serious face. She decided she didn't want to know after all. Whatever sort of things could bring that look onto the face of someone so innocent. Then she didn't want to know what it was…

* * *

The following morning Haruhi walked out of her room seeing Honey doing a hand stand.

"See Takashi!" he said smiling. "My arm is all better."

He had been upgraded to an arm brace rather than a cast a while ago.

"One arm," Takashi said staring at him.

Honey balanced his weight on only his good arm. "Ta-da!"

"No, the other one."

Honey frowned, delicately he brought the injured arm back and somewhat shakily balanced on the bad arm. Slowly he lifted his good arm off the floor and balanced only on his bad one. He was unsteady on it but at least he was doing it. "Wow Honey-senpai!" Haruhi said happily.

Honey who had not noticed her come out of her room glanced her direction and lost his holding he started falling. Takashi jumped forward just in time to prevent his head from colliding with the coffee table.

"Thanks Takashi," Honey said as he sat him down.

"Oh sorry," Haruhi said. "I distracted you didn't I?"

"That's okay," Honey said as he reached down and removed the arm brace. Turning his palm towards his face he opened his fingers a few times. "Alright, I don't need the brace anymore."

"Two more weeks," Takashi said.

"No it's fine," Honey said throwing it to the floor. He got up heading towards the kitchen when Mori suddenly grabbed his upper arm.

Honey turned back and Mori picked up the arm brace. Taking Honey's arm delicately he put the brace back on it and pulled the Velcro straps tight. "Two more weeks."

Honey frowned.

A snicker from the doorway called their attention to where the bodyguards were standing. They seemed to find it funny.

Haruhi frowned, "Just ignore them. They're jerks."

"They don't bother me," Honey said smiling. "Tamaki went to get cupcakes for breakfast! He should be back soon so let's set the table."

"Already did," Rin called from the kitchen.

"Yea!" Honey cheered hurrying over. Mori casted one more glance back at the bodyguards before following Honey.

Haruhi frowned as the events of yesterday occurred. Today started her engagement meetings, and she took a deep breath hoping what Honey said wouldn't be true. The idea that a long lost relative could choose her future spouse was terrifying.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been re-reading OHSHC again. So I'm a bit inspired. Hence the updates so close together. :)


	6. In Cold Again

Rin was quite ecstatic the morning of Haruhi's marriage meetings. She was humming to herself and had made her Princess breakfast rather early.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Oh Princess," Rin called through her door. The Bodyguard standing to the right of it did not move. However, Honey and Mori had been sleeping on the chairs in the living room, and the knock woke Mori up. Honey too woke up… which was not a good thing. He sat up with a death glare on his face. He slowly turned his head in Rin's direction as though he would love nothing more than to jump over that couch and snap her neck.

"Oh Princess!" she called again even louder, and Honey half rose with intent to carry out his thoughts.

Only Mori moved quickly to his side, grabbed Usa-chan and brought the bunny's face to Honey's lips. Honey blinked blushing slightly as he looked up at Mori. "Usa-chan wanted to give you a good morning kiss."

Frowning he hugged the bunny and slumped back down in his seat when the door opened and a sleepy looking Haruhi emerged frowning. "What?" she asked grumpily.

"Today, is the day of your marriage meetings. So I made you a good and healthy breakfast and—"

Groaning Haruhi turned around to head back to bed.

"Nope!" Rin exclaimed grabbing her pajama sleeve she dragged her to the kitchen and sat her down at the table. Tamaki, who had heard the commotion came out of his room yawning.

"Here is your schedule," Rin said showing Haruhi a piece of paper.

"Ugh, this takes up my whole day," Haruhi frowned staring at it.

"Yes indeed," Rin said smiling as the door opened and the twins entered talking loud and comically about some nonsense. "However, your Grandfather will be most upset if you don't attend all your meetings. So make sure you smile!"

Hikaru rested his arm on Kaoru's shoulder whispering something to him, and suddenly they both got a devilish grin on their faces. They ran to the living room pulling aside the other members of the Host Club.

"We got a plan to get Haruhi out of this," they said. "Rin was telling us yesterday that she HAS to attend marriage meetings every Saturday from now until her Grandfather picks someone. So we'll take the spots of her marriage meetings today."

"There is already a schedule," Honey said frowning. "We'd have to get put on a list if we were going to be a part of her meetings."

"I think we'll make a new list…" Kaoru said.

"Yup, we'll take up her whole day and that bump her actual meetings for today to next week," Hikaru explained. "It'll be awesome!"

"Then what are we supposed to do next week?" Tamaki asked frowning.

"We'll figure that out when it gets here…" Hikaru snapped. "For not it's officially time for operation protect Haruhi from her suitors!"

"YES!" Tamaki said happily finally getting into the plan. "I'm surprised I didn't think of this…"

"I'm surprised you didn't think of it either," came Kyoya's voice. He had walked in and crouched down in their huddle without anyone noticing. "However, you do realize how futile it is don't you. Even if we do that this week, we won't be able to keep it up week after week. Eventually Haruhi will have to attend her marriage meetings and her Grandfather will have to make a decision."

"Who cares!" Hikaru snapped. "What matters is keeping her happy right now."

Kaoru glanced in Hikaru's direction and he looked away frowning. _He's still not completely over her yet_ , Kaoru thought sighing.

"Exactly!" Tamaki exclaimed. "We know the mission, so let's begin! BREAK!"

While Haruhi was eating Hikaru went onto his computer and printed out a new schedule. Honey distracted Rin and Haruhi by going on about cakes while Mori switched the schedules.

When her breakfast was done Rin helped Haruhi get dressed, and then the two of them went into the living room. She pulled out the paper, "Alright, I'm going to need you boys to leave while her meetings get underway. The only ones allowed to be here are Haruhi, her guards, me and the suitor. So if you don't mind going somewhere else…"

"Who is her first meeting with?" the twins asked frowning at her. Honey walked over to stand at his place on Haruhi's right side.

"Well, let's see…" she said glancing down at her paper.

"Okay, your first meeting is with… Suoh Tamaki…" Rin said frowning at the paper…

"Oh really?" Tamaki said grinning with mock surprise. "Well then…"

"What!?" Rin gasped looking at the paper. "No… you weren't on the list… I'm sure you weren't…"

"Well I am now," Tamaki said grinning he walked over to Haruhi took her hand and kissed it. "Good day your highness. I am your potential suitor Suoh Tamaki. It's nice to meet you."

Haruhi frowned, "What are you guys doing?"

"Well then we will just let you be," the rest of the Host club said leaving with grins on their faces, and with that they left disappearing through the door.

"I don't understand," Rin gasped. "Where is the actual list!?"

She began to frantically search under everything around her.

"Well, let me tell you about myself Princess. I am the only heir to the Suoh family. We own many hotels and have our hands in education. I'm one of the top in my class and I'm extremely handsome (as you can see)," he said grinning. Haruhi snickered slightly.

Tamaki made a big show of talking himself up, and they even pretended like he was meeting Haruhi for the first time.

"So tell me about yourself Princess?"

"Well, I attend Ouran Academy, I'm in the U.S. on a study abroad trip. I sort of have a boyfriend…"

"Really! And yet you're seeing suitors," Tamaki said grinning. "What does he thing about this situation?"

"Oh he's not too happy," Haruhi said seriously. "So you should keep your distance."

"Is that so?" Tamaki running his fingers through his hair letting the brown strands flow. "Well I'm not afraid of him…"

"Oh you should be," Haruhi said. "He's very tall. Really muscular. He has his own motorcycle and rides with a gang though back allies. A very scary dude. Tons of tattoos, with a beard that reaches his belly."

Tamaki was looking progressively more panicked as she went on, "Wait, who are you talking about?" he asked frowning.

Haruhi snickered at his perplexed stare. "You're cute," she said smiling happily.

Tamaki's face lit up and he grabbed the sofa chair's pillow covering his face with it. Haruhi was too adorable…

Haruhi and him continued to talk for the remaining time and when Haruhi's first "actual" suitor arrived the twins turned him away telling him he had the wrong date, that's when Kaoru went upstairs and knocked on the door.

Rin answered it and frowned when she saw who it was.

"Hello, I'm Princess Haruhi's next appointment," he said.

"Okay, no you're not. None of you were on the list!" she snapped frowning. Though Hikaru (lightly) pushed his way in.

"Thanks," he said as he passed her.

"Pardon me," Kaoru stopped before Tamaki. "I believe it's my turn now…"

"Oh is it? My where did the time go?" Tamaki said rising to his feet. He turned to Haruhi and took her hand placing a kiss upon it. "Please consider me Princess…"

With that he disappeared out the front door and Kaoru walked over to her kissing the very same hand himself, "Good day your highness. I am your potential suitor Hitachiin Kaoru. It's nice to meet you."

He took Tamaki's seat and everything was just as comical as when Tamaki was there. Both of them pretending this was the first time they had met, and Rin was tearfully making calls to someone. When Kaoru's meeting was over, he kissed her hand as Tamaki did and said, "Please consider me Princess…"

The next one to come in was Kyoya. This one wasn't funny, because Kyoya was taking it seriously. He did not pretend they didn't know each other as the other two had done. In fact, talked himself up. Told Haruhi more about his families' business than she had ever known before, and when his meeting was done he too stood up and kissed her hand saying, "Please consider me Princess…"

The Host Club was outside deterring the actual suitors from coming in, by telling them they either had the wrong location or that they had the wrong day. When Kyoya left Hikaru hurried up the stairs for his turn.

Rin had stopped answering the door so he let himself in. "Good day your highness. I am your potential suitor Hikaru Hitachiin. It's nice to meet you."

He sat down. This one, was awkward… Hikaru had once confessed to her, and she had turned him down. So having a marriage meeting with him was strange. However, Hikaru seemed to want to avoid the awkwardness as much as possible and he was doing that by acting like his regular goofy self. At one point he started going into some really ridiculous stuff like promising to purchase a continent just for her which they would fill with nothing but baby animals and candy trees.

Honey perked up at that. "I wanna go there!" he said happily. "Haru-cahn, you should pick Hika-chan. Then you should take me to the candy trees!"

When he was done he too stood up, kissed her hand and said, "Please consider me Princess…"

When he left, Haruhi turned to Honey. "Is that a normal thing to say at the end of a marriage meeting?" she asked.

"I've never attended one where someone hasn't said that at the end," Honey said thinking about it.

* * *

Outside Mori was preparing to head upstairs when a limo pulled up and Keishin got out.

"Oh shit! It's him!" Kaoru gasped.

"Oh man…" Tamaki said frowning. He turned to Mori, "The plan hasn't changed Mori-senpai! But have your marriage meeting somewhere where Keishin won't find her…"

Mori nodded running upstairs.

They turned back as Keishin walked up to them, and after him Hasuru climbed out of the car.

"Fuck this guy too…" Hikaru frowned.

"What is this I hear about you scaring away Haruhi's suitors?"

"Scaring away?" Tamaki said frowning. "No we're not scaring them away. They simply had the wrong day…"

"Uh-huh," Keishin said frowning. "Look, I don't have time for your Host Club's ridiculous little games. It is time for my marriage meeting with Princess Haruhi. Move out of my way."

"Huh, the Princess isn't here," Kaoru said throwing his arms behind his head.

"Yeah, she's gone," Hikaru said mimicking him.

"She is not, she's upstairs! Move out of my way or Hasuru will make you," Keishin said. He turned to Honey's uncles. "Well, don't just stand there, make them!"

"Really?" Kyoya said. "Are you sure you want to threaten the children of some of the most prominent families in Japan. It really wouldn't be a good idea for you to make enemies of us… Especially _my_ family…"

"Why especially your family huh?" Hikaru and Kaoru frowned together.

"Please, of all our families mine is clearly the most influential…"

"I think my family is pretty influential," Tamaki said frowning at him.

"Please, your families' fame derives from being friends with my family," Kyoya explained.

It slowly escalated into a shouting match. At first Hasuru and Keishin stood there confused, and then suddenly he realized what they were doing. They were stalling…

"HEY! All your families' suck equally. Now get out of my way before—"

Just then Haruhi's bodyguards and Rin came bursting out of the apartment. She looked down at them panicked. "Morinozuka and Haninozuka just kidnapped the Princess!" she gasped. The Bodyguards rushed down the stairs and would have run over the boys had they not hurried out of their way.

"They ran this way c'mon!" shouted one of the bodyguards to the others.

* * *

Outside Mori was preparing to head upstairs when a limo pulled up and Keishin got out.

"Oh shit! It's him!" Kaoru gasped.

"Oh man…" Tamaki said frowning. He turned to Mori, "The plan hasn't changed Mori-senpai! But have your marriage meeting somewhere where Keishin won't find her…"

Mori nodded running upstairs he opened the door and closed it behind him. "Good day your highness," he said. "I am your potential suitor Morinozuka Takashi. Please come with me I would like to show you something…"

He grabbed her wrist before she could say anything and pulled her over to her bedroom opening the door he hurried inside with her. Honey ran after them closing and locking the door just as Haruhi's bodyguards tried to open it.

"Hey! This is highly inappropriate! You cannot be in the Princess' bedchambers!"

"It's okay, I'm here, and she really only needs one bodyguard present at a marriage meeting anyway," Honey said to them through the door.

"What happened?" Honey added walking over to them and frowning.

"Keishin arrived."

"Ugh," Haruhi frowned. She really didn't like him.

Mori popped the screen out of her window and looked down, he seemed to be judging the height and then he climbed out the window grabbing the drainage pipe. "C'mon," he said to Haruhi.

"Wha? Are we really going to go through all this just to avoid a marriage meeting?" she asked frowning.

"Well, if you would rather go through it I can go get him," Honey said looking up at her.

She thought about how awkward and awful it would be to have to sit through a marriage meeting with Keishin and she frowned. Scaling her building did feel like much more fun. "I'll go," she said.

Honey grinned happily and held her arm so she could lean safely out the window. She put her other arm around Mori's neck and Mori wrapped one arm around her waist. He nodded to Honey to tell him he could safely let go of her. Then the two of them scaled down the building. With Haruhi having both her arms wrapped around his neck he climbed down. When they were safely on the concrete below he put Haruhi on her feet.

"Takashi!" Honey called from the window. They both looked up and Honey dropped Usa-chan down to them. Mori caught it and handed it to Haruhi. Then, Honey jumped. Haruhi looked panicked seeing Honey fall from such a height. But neither of the boys looked worried and Mori caught Honey with ease and sat him on the ground.

"Thanks Takashi!" Honey said smiling before grabbing Haruhi's arm, "C'mon. They'll be following us soon."

"PRINCESS!"

They looked up to see the Bodyguards leaning out the window. Honey stuck his tongue out at them before running around the corner with Haruhi. Mori hurried after them.

* * *

"They ran this way c'mon!" shouted one of the bodyguards to the others.

Keishin and Hasuru hurried off as well. Tamaki had started to follow only Kyoya grabbed his arm. "C'mon… it's not like we don't know where they're going…"

Tamaki blinked at him, and realized he was right. Smiling he turned to the others. "Alright men! Let's go!"

* * *

Honey and Mori took Haruhi to the small restaurant where they had been going for some time. The very same one they were at when this whole situation had started. They all ordered cake and Mori continued his Marriage Meeting with Haruhi. Only Haruhi had the feeling that she was a third wheel on a date.

Mori was looking at Honey the whole time he was listing the things that would make him a good husband. "I am the heir to my families' fortune, and I have been instilled with the quality of unwavering loyalty. Above all else I will be faithful, and I will protect you."

Honey smiled looking up at him lovingly.

Haruhi glanced from one to the other, they seemed to have gotten lost staring at each other. _Gosh, they really are in love_ , she found herself thinking.

"Hey, um…" she said softly calling their attention. "You guys can… uh… you know. You two can kiss if you want… I'll just be diligently reading this menu…"

"There are too many people here," Honey said sounding slightly disappointed as he leaned back in his seat staring up at the ceiling.

Their food arrived and they ate it, paid their bill and went walking around the city. At one point Mori checked his watch, "It's time for your next meeting," he said. He turned placed both hands on the side of Haruhi's face, he lightly kissed her cheek. "That's for Mitsukuni," he said softly before pulling back.

"Please consider me Princess…" he said loudly before bowing slightly.

Honey blinked watching them pulling Usa-chan closer to him.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said looking at him. "Your turn…"

"Oh right," Honey said laughing slightly. He ran around so he could stand in front of Haruhi. "Good day your highness. I am your potential suitor Haninozuka Mitsukuni. It's nice to meet you."

He sat on the railing of the bridge they were on looking at her. "Let's see… What would make me a good husband… Well, I'm a martial artist so I would keep you safe forever and evers. You would always be allowed to eat snacks in our bed. Um… We would have professional chefs to make us all kinds of sweets and…"

He kept going. The things he listed were clearly things important to Honey, and Haruhi enjoyed listening to his childish perspective of what he thought made a good husband. He leaned against the bridge railing looking down into the waters below as she listened. When he finished, the sun was setting… "Well, that's it. We took up the whole day," Honey said jumping down from the railing he was sitting on. He bowed to Haruhi, "Please consider me, Princess…"

She smiled turning around to face the two of them. "Thanks guys," she said. "I certainly had a lot more fun than I otherwise would have…"

They both smiled at her. "I guess we can't avoid it no more. Let's head back…" Honey said. Mori turned toward the road to hail a cab for them.

Haruhi looked around and turned to Honey. She placed both hands on the side of his face and leaned forward whispering, "This is from Mori-senpai," she said before kissing him softly on the cheek. She did her best to mimic exactly how Mori had done it.

When she pulled back Honey's face was slightly flushed and he smiled, "Thanks Haru-chan," he said before hugging Usa-chan tightly.

A cab pulled up stopping next to them Mori opened the door to let Honey and Haruhi in first. Haruhi took a deep breath, returning meant she would have to talk to Keishin. She was sure he wouldn't have left just because the day was done. But at least she had had fun.

Honey climbed in first and Haruhi got in second. The second she was seated however; the gas pedal was suddenly floored; the taxi took off with such speed the at the door was blown shut by the wind. Mori attempted to run after them. Though the car went up to 90mph and Mori was soon out of sight.

"What are you doing? Stop! That was our friend! Hey, slow down!" Haruhi gasped at the driver.

"Haru-chan, put your seatbelt on," Honey said warningly.

She looked at him, and he had one of his dead serious looks on his face. The person in the passenger seat, a woman. Turned around and pointed a gun at them.

"Hello," she said. "Princess Haruhi? I presume?"

Haruhi blinked looking terrified. She aimed the gun at Honey, "And you must be her little guard puppy… how cute…"

Honey didn't say anything but seemed to be staring her down.

"Oh you look upset," she said smiling. "You won't be upset for long…"

The car turned down the right street of a fork in the road, Honey rolled down his window and threw Usa-chan out of it.

"What are you doing?" asked the woman frowning the gun still on him.

"Well, if we're gonna be killed I don't want anything happening to Usa-chan…" he said softly.

"Tsk," the woman rolled her eyes at Honey's childish actions. Though Haruhi was pretty sure she knew why Honey had done that. That road was pretty far out of the way, and if the Hostclub was following them (as she was certain they were going to do) Usa-chan would tell them which road to go down.

They soon came to a stop outside a large warehouse. Honey and Haruhi were ordered out of the car. Honey's plan had been to start attacking the moment he stepped out. However, a quick glance around revealed not only were their more people here than he had anticipated, but it seemed there were snipers on the roof. No matter how good a fighter he was, he would not be able to stop the snipers from shooting them.

The best chance they had for survival at this point. Was compliance.

"C'mon," the woman ordered.

She led them inside.

"So are you the guys who have been trying to kill Haruhi?" Honey asked frowning.

"Why yes, how did you guess?" she asked grinning.

Honey frowned, "Why?"

"Why? You expect me to just reveal my whole plan to you then? Just like that?" she asked. "Well alright. It is the classic villain thing to do, and we're going to kill you anyway. So why not?"

She spun around smiling. "Kishon is my home country. I have a lot of pride and respect for them and my people. What I (and in fact most of our citizens) will not accept. Is some little Japanese slut off the street becoming our Queen! Your mother abandoned her throne and her people and thus any disgusting little offspring of hers shouldn't be permitted to take the throne! We are going to get a ransom for you. Give the King proof you're still alive, and when he pays us, we'll kill you."

She glanced at Honey, "Both of you. I didn't really want to have anyone else along for this ride. But you made the mistake of getting in the car first before Haruhi, so you'll have to pay for that…"

"Please listen to me…" Haruhi said. "I understand how you feel, but—"

"Shut up!" the woman snapped spinning around and aiming her gun at Haruhi. "I don't want to hear anything you have to say…"

The woman turned to one of the men next to her, "Lock them up!"

The man stepped forward aiming his gun at them, he motioned for them to move. She and Honey were forced to walk almost the entire length of the warehouse until they reached the far back where a large freezer came into view. The man opened the door and a piercing rush of cold met both of them, and Haruhi started shivering instantly. She was only wearing a sundress and sandals after all.

"Get in!" they demanded.

Both she and Honey felt the barrels of guns pushed into their back, so against their will they were forced inside. The door was closed and locked. Haruhi exhaled. She could see her breath, and she was already freezing.

Honey frowned looking around everywhere. She assumed he was looking for a way out.

"Here Haru-chan," Honey said. "Sit here…"

He brought her over to some boxes, and she sat on the freezing cold cardboard. "Honey-senpai, can't you do something!" she asked. "Can't you kick the door down?"

Honey blinked at her for a second as though he didn't understand what she was asking, and then realization hit him and he smiled sorrowfully at her. "I'm a martial artist Haru-chan, not a superhero. It would take a truck or maybe a cannon ball to open that door by force."

Haruhi frowned. She had gotten used to Honey or Mori having a solution for their problems, and the realization was hitting her that Honey couldn't get her out of this. She pulled her legs up to her chest in an effort to keep them as warm as possible.

Honey felt a small ping of regret. The idea that he couldn't be the superhero Haru-chan wanted (and more importantly needed) right now made him feel like a terrible servant. He never realized how hard it must have been for Takashi all these years. Being someone's servant wasn't easy.

* * *

Tamaki and the others had been unable to go straight to the restaurant that they knew Honey, Mori, and Haruhi were probably at. One of Haruhi's guards seemed to be tailing them, having realized that they probably knew where they had gone.

So they drove around making sharp turns until they had for sure lost him.

When they knew they had they headed to the restaurant only to have the shop owner (who knew them well considering how often they had come there since they had arrived) tell them they had already left.

"Alright, let's go home," Kyoya said frowning. "That's probably where they headed after eating here anyway."

"I guess…" Tamaki shrugged.

A taxi suddenly screeched to a halt before them and Mori stepped out looking worried.

"Mori-senpai, we were just wondering if you guys had—" Hikaru began, only he stopped upon noticing the look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Mitsukuni and Haruhi were kidnapped."

"What! HOW!?" Tamkai asked panicked.

"I hailed a Taxi that turned out not to be a Taxi after all," Mori explained. "I tried to follow them in another Taxi, but they drove off too fast."

"Kyoya," Tamaki said looking back at him, but it seemed he had read Tamaki's mind and was already dialing.

Kyoya was on the phone with his families' private police force as they piled in the car heading in the direction that the Taxi had taken Haruhi and Honey.

* * *

"Haru-chan, here," Honey said removing his socks and shoes so she could put them on instead of the sandals she was wearing. Honey also gave her his light jacket and the long sleeve T he had been wearing. Which left Honey barefoot, in a pair of shorts and sleeveless tank. She had tried to refuse at first, but Honey wouldn't letter. Haruhi needed to stay warm, and this was all he had to offer to achieve this.

"But Honey, what a…about you?" she shivered.

"I'm fine," he said, and he looked it. Honey wasn't shivering.

"How are you not cold?" she asked.

"I'm keeping my mind on other things. That's the best way to stay calm in any situation like this," he explained. "So, let's tell stories to pass the time okay?"

"O…okay?" she answered.

* * *

They drove around for what felt like forever. When it was already an hour since Haruhi and Honey had gone missing. Tamaki was getting very agitated.

"Damn it!" he snapped. "Where could they have gone? We don't have any clue or direction to go in…"

"My families' private police force is going to take some time to get here. Perhaps we should call the American police…" Kyoya explained.

"Yes, let's call—" before Tamaki could finish what he was saying Kyoya's phone rang.

"Hello? Yes. No we haven't. I see… Alright we'll head there now," Kyoya said before hanging up. "That was Keishin."

They all turned surprised to Kyoya, "How does he have your number?" Kaoru asked.

"Not sure, but that's not really what's important right now. The King was just sent a ransom e-mail for Haruhi, so Keishin knows she's missing now. He says he might have a way to track her if he can use my laptop, so he wants us to meet up with him now. Shall we go?"

They all exchanged worried glances. They had been suspecting Keishin when they first realized someone was trying to kill Haruhi. There was a chance he could be in on it and that his calling them out was a trap, and they all knew it.

"Let's go," Tamaki said. "If there is even a 1% chance that he can find Haruhi and Honey. We have to take it."

Kyoya told the driver where to go.

* * *

"Ne… Haru-chan? You have to stay awake okay…" Honey said. His "tell stories" technique was fading quickly. Haruhi kept closing her eyes, and he definitely could not let her fall asleep.

Haruhi didn't want to move, she had never been so cold in her life, and shockingly she was including the time when she had fallen in the lake. How long had they been in this freezer? Comparatively she realized she had been in this freezer a whole lot longer than she had been in that lake, so she couldn't know for sure if it was colder here or there. But honestly, why was she sitting here debating how cold she was then and now!? What did it matter? She was freezing now, and she couldn't stand it…

"Haru-chan open your eyes…"

Haruhi sighed. She didn't want to.

"Ne… Haru-chan?"

She forced herself to look up at him and she was a bit alarmed to see his face. He really looked cold now though was obviously doing his best to hide it. She reached up in an attempt to give him back his jacket when suddenly his cold hands encased her face and she jumped from the shock of it. He tilted her head up, leaned forward, and kissed her. Not just a peck, not just a familial kiss on the lips. This was done with purpose, fervently, and with a passion that she had not been kissed with before. Not even by her boyfriend, who would blush every time he gave her just a simple kiss where the contact lasted barely a few seconds.

When she realized this her eyes widened and she backed away from him. "Honey-senpai!?" she gasped staring questionably at him. "Wha… Why did you…"

"Haru-chan…" he said smiling. "If I challenged Tama-chan to a fight for your heart. Do you think I would win?"

"Honey-se… senpai… wha… what are you talk… talking about?" she asked shivering still.

"I love you, Haru-chan," he said smiling at her and he pushed some of the freezing strands of hair off her face. She blinked up at him. For the first time in the entire time she had known him, Honey didn't appear childish to her. She had seen moments where he acted grown up or gave an expression that made him seem like an adult, but that didn't stop her thinking of him as a kid. Even though he was her senapi and she realized he was older than her, she just couldn't think of him that way. No, for the first time he seemed like an adult to her, inside and out. Honey leaned close to her again and put his cheek on the side of her face exhaling softly in her ear. Which sent a chill down her spine and she pulled back blushing like crazy. "I love you… Haru-chan…"

"Honey don't I can't… Tamaki-senpai and I haven't even…" she felt her face burning just thinking about it. She had kissed Tamaki, but they had always been like… pecks, and the kiss she had just gotten from Honey had not been anywhere close to a peck.

Honey smiled at her, and he leaned close kissing her once again kissing so fiercely that she almost fell backwards off the crate she was sitting on. She didn't only because Honey had caught her. Kissing her the whole while. She did try to pull away, but Honey was a whole lot stronger than he looked and he held her close. She knew that was because of his martial arts training, but Honey usually looked so thin and little, that it still took her a bit by surprise.

He pulled back. "I'll teach you something you can take back to Tama-chan…"

His hand slid to the back of her head and he pulled her face to the side before kissing her neck. Haruhi's face lit up, "Honey don't…" she said shakily.

* * *


	7. The Retrieval & the Bad Pain

"Did you bring it?" Keishin asked as soon as Kyoya and the other's have arrived. He had set up base in a nearby restaurant.

"It is rare for me to not have my computer on me," Kyoya explained setting it down on the table before Keishin. He turned it around and slid it towards him.

"Can you really find Haruhi?" Tamaki asked frowning.

Keishi sipped some tea and opened Kyoya's laptop before he began typing. "I think so," he explained. "It'll depend on what outfit she wore today."

"What?" the twins frowned in unison. Their had been enough chairs placed around his table for all of them so they took seats.

"I didn't tell anyone but while you were all in Kishon I had someone break into Haruhi's apartment and put tracking devices in all her clothes," he explained. "Regrettably I didn't bring my own laptop today so I wasn't able to track her myself."

"You can't do that!" Tamaki snapped.

"I already did," Keshin said bluntly not looking up from the computer. He looked almost like Kyoya sitting there typing away diligently. "Besides, it is my right to do whatever I see fit to ensure the safety of my future bride."

"She is not your bride!" Tamaki snapped furiously.

"There we go," Keshin said smiling. "Hasuru?"

"Got it," Hasuru answered.

Keshin typed for a few more seconds. "Sorry about this," he said turning Kyoya's screen back around to him. He had wiped his computer clean. "I'll pay for the damages, but I don't need you tracking me in anyway."

"Of course," Kyoya said politely as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do, wiping someone else's computer clean.

Hasuru walked over to the next table and opened a brief case. He began to take out a number of weapons which he loaded and put in various compartments on his person. "Wait," Tamaki said frowning. "Did you find her or not?"

"I did," Keshin said. "Hasuru is going to take care of it..."

"So where is she?" Tamaki pleaded half rising from his seat and he immediately felt a hand push him back into it. He turned to find Haruhi's guards standing around. They were each holding a weapon of their own.

"That is for Hasuru and me to know. If Haruhi is unharmed I will have her brought here. If she is injured she will be taken to the hospital and you can see her there."

"So you're not going to tell us!" Hikaru snapped frowning.

"You are all in enough trouble with our majesty as it is. I would suggest you bite your tongue and let me worry about it," Keishin said grabbing his teacup and taking another sip.

"Alright, I'm locked and loaded," Hasuru said. "I'll bring her back to you Master Keishin."

"See that you do," Keishin answered boredly.

"Now wait a minute!" Kaoru frowned. "Haruhi is not the only one in danger here. Our friend Honey-senpai is in danger too..."

"Haninozuka is a trained fighter..." Keshin explained as though that settled the matter. "I'm sure he's fine..."

"It doesn't matter how well you've been trained if he's facing an small army of armed soldiers he'll need help!" Takashi explained.

"Do you not have faith in Haninozuka's abilities?" Keshin asked narrowing his eyes.

"No one has more faith in Mitsukuni's abilities than me," Takashi answered defiantly.

"Then you should have nothing to worry about," Keshin explained setting his tea down.

"Don't worry," Hasuru said as he opened the door to leave. "If it's not too much out of my way I'll bring back little Mi-chan too."

With that he walked out and disappeared.

"Would you mind terribly," Kyoya said with a false air of politeness. "If I called Fujioka-san and let him know what has happened with his daughter?"

"Go ahead," Keshin said boredly.

Kyoya took out his phone and began to dial. Just then the electricity went out. The room was engulfed in almost total darkness. "What the..." A loud thump. Some gun shots and then the lights went back on. Mori was on his feet. He had taken out the gunman and knocked Keishin unconscious. All without letting stray bullets hit any of them.

Kyoya closed his phone. "C'mon!"

Kyoya and Mori hurried towards the door.

"Wait, you two planned that?" Kaoru said frowning.

"Well I made the lights go out," Kyoya said. "But I figured when I did Mori would take out the guards."

They all ran outside. "Well, that's great and all," Tamaki said frowning. "But we still don't know where Haruhi and Honey-senpai are..."

Kyoya glanced back at him and held out his flip phone. "I am never without my computer," he explained smiling cheekily. "This phone has the same capabilities as a state of the art computer, it was recording everything Keshin typed on my laptop. If he did indeed find the address, I'll have it on here."

* * *

Haruhi felt like crying. This wasn't the Honey she knew... Why was he doing this to her...

Suddenly the sounds of muffled gun shots were heard. Honey pulled back immediately turning to the door he grinned. "Looks like somethings about to start..."

Haruhi had tears in the corner of her eyes. Shouldn't couldn't believe she had been making out with Honey-senpai... Well more like he had been making out with her. He seemed completely unaffected by what they had just done. He turned back to her. "I bet we'll be out of here soon," he said smiling talking in his normal cute voice again. He frowned when he saw her face. "Haru-chan? What's wrong?"

* * *

Hasuru had busted in guns drawn and had begun shooting up the place. With the skill from his martial arts training he could dodge and bullets shot at him, and he was able to shoot most of them before they got their guns on him. Though he had plenty of help. Keishin had many soldiers of his own and they too were swarming the place.

* * *

"Haru-chan," Honey said frowning. "Are you okay?"

She blinked and a few tear drops fell from her eyes. Honey's frowned deepened. "You shouldn't cry in here Haru-chan... Your eyelashes will freze..."

More gun shots. Honey turned back to the door. Their was far more than he was expecting... Just what was going on out there...

* * *

"The gps doesn't focus in any more than this..." Kyoya said frowning. "I think he was able to affect my phones ability to receive the data from my computer."

"But we're at a fork!" Tamaki exclaimed frowning. "Which way!"

Takashi opened the door stepping out he hurried towards the thing he thought he had seen. Indeed it was... "Usa-chan," Mori said softly kneeling down to pick it up. "They went this way!"

* * *

"Hasuru-sama!" one of his soldiers said hurrying over to him. "We captured this woman!"

The woman from the cap was now bound. They forced her to her knees before him.

"Well, where is the girl?" Hasuru asked.

"I don't know," the woman lied immediately. Hasuru kicked her rather hard in the stomach and she coughed gasping.

"That is the wrong answer... Now look around you. Unless you wish to end up like these other fools, I suggest you tell me now. Where is she!"

She snickered and Hasuru kicked her across the face. "Last chance girl..."

The woman looked up with a swollen cheek and spit on his clothes. Frowning Hasuru stood tall and pointed one of his guns right at her head. Just as he was about to pull the trigger Takashi came running over and kicked the gun out of his hand. It still shot but missed her.

Hasuru turned. "What the hell are you doing here?" he snapped. "I said I had this!"

Tamaki and the twins were still at the door and they looked around. A few people had been fatally killed, some terribly wounded... Their was blood all over the floors and walls. Takashi seemed completely unaffected by the state of the room, but the other three looked like they were going to be sick. Kyoya wore an expression of mild concern.

Takashi frowned, "You didn't have to kill so many people..."

"Hmph," he turned to him. "And what do you suppose I do with them? Play a board game for the girl? I don't have time to wait for such nonsense. I was just about to get her whereabouts out of this woman when you interfered."

Tamaki swallowed walking over to the woman he knelt down in-front of her. "Ma'am, he said softly. Please tell us where Haruhi and Honey are. They're both very dear friends of ours. I don't know what we'd do if we lost them... Please..."

She frowned, and her head fell looking at the ground so she could avoid Tamaki's gaze. "We put the two of them in the freezer. But only my boss knew the code to it, and your guy shot him..."

Tamaki smiled. "Thank you."

He got to his feet and looked around spotting the part of the room that was the freezer. He and the other's ran over to it. "Ah!" Tamaki gasped. "This is an industrial strength freezer! It must be so cold in there. Guys can you hear us!"

"Does anyone have a blow torch?" Kaoru asked looking around frantically. "I think that's about all that's going to get that door open..."

"With a blow torch we'll never get it open before they freeze to death!" Tamaki exclaimed panicked.

"Calm down," Kyoya said walking over to a box on the side. He opened it, scanned the buttons and hit a few of them, as well as pulled a switch. "There. I turned off the freezer, but it can still be cold for hours after..."

"Then what do we do!" Tamaki snapped.

"As I said, calm down," Kyoya explained taking out his phone he looked at a number on the side of the electric box and dialed it. Then he put the phone to his ear. "Yes hello. I need to know how to reset the lock code on your industrial freezers without the original code. Yes. Model number U31-17. Yes. Hold down zero for three seconds and press the nine key three times..."

He did this as he was instructed. The numbers began to flass 0's across the screen. "And it's now safe to open? Thank you, you've been a big help."

With that he hung up and opened the door. Honey was standing between the entrance and Haruhi, apparently prepared for a fight (if their was to be one). But when he saw it was them he looked relieved. "Ta... Takashi..." he said shivering slightly.

Takashi rushed in immediately picking him up. Tamaki did the same running over to Haruhi.

"Haruhi are you okay?" he gasped taking her in his arms. She was shivering like crazy wearing Honey's jacket. Takashi carried Honey from the freezer and Honey looked around at the destruction. He frowned.

"Kao-chan," Honey said softly. "May I please borrow your jacket?"

"Uh, of course," Kaoru said taking it off thinking Honey wanted it because he was cold. But instead he turned to Tamaki. "Put this over Haru-chan's head until we've left the building..."

"Huh? Wh...why?" Haruhi asked shakily.

But Tamaki walked close enough so Honey could put it over her head. "Just trust me, okay..."

The sound of slow clapping met their ears and they all turned to see Hasuru mockingly applauding. "So Mi-chan, did you plan your escape for before or after I had to come here and save you two?"

Honey glared at him from between the strands of hair in his bangs.

"If you will excuse us," Kyoya said with his ever present tone of fake politeness. "I think Honey-senpai and Haruhi have had a trying enough day. We're going to take them home now..."

They all began walking to the exit and when they got just past Hasuru he turned and stated loudly, "So I guess I'll just have to inform the King about how much you utterly failed to protect her..."

Haruhi frowned at that and she started to take the coat off her head so she could say something but Tamaki held it in place. "Not now Haruhi," he said solemnly. Their was something in his tone that told her, this indeed was not the time...

"Tell the King whatever you want," Honey said letting his head rest on Takashi's shoulder. Trying to absorb as much of his warmth as possible. Once back in their car their was some shuffling around of clothing until Honey and Haruhi were dressed in every article of clothing the others could spare from their persons. Which left them looking a bit silly since nothing they had on matched in any way. But at least they were getting warm.

* * *

That night the host club all decided to stay at Haruhi's apartment again. They had kicked Rin out for the night and made her stay in one of the other member's apartments. As for the guards, Honey and Mori denied them entrance so they were forced to guard the building (that is if they wished to guard anything).

Mori made everyone hot cocoa.

"Do you think the King will really be angry?" Haruhi asked taking the cup from Mori and thanking him.

"Who knows..." Kaoru frowned throwing his arms behind his head frowning.

"Well I mean, he can't really do anything even if he is mad right?" Haruhi asked frowning.

"He is the King of a small but very influential country," Kyoya said point blank. "He could do a lot..."

"Like what?" she asked a bit worried.

"Like prevent influential families from doing business with our families. He could could put any of us on a no fly going in or out of Kishon. Their is plenty he could do."

"Do you think he'll do something?" Haruhi asked looking down into her cup of cocoa.

"Well, we prevented your marriage meetings, Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai took you from your residence without alerting the guards he sent to watch over you. Which could very well be considered kidnapping, and on today of all days when we were being the most disobedient you were actually kidnapped and put in fairly significant danger. I'm not gonna lie, in his shoes I would be a little more than just upset," Kyoya explained.

"Hhmm..." Haruhi finished her cocoa. "Well, I'll have to talk to him... Just because I'm a Princess doesn't mean I'm going to stop living my life and drop everything just to make him happy..."

"Haruhi, that is what people with positions do," Kyoya said folding his hands together. "Personally, I think we should all take your position a bit more seriously and stop goofing around like we did today."

"We were just trying to make Haruhi happy," Tamaki said frowning.

"Life is not about being happy, it's about doing what is expected of you to the best of your ability," Kyoya snapped. His temper clearly starting to rise.

"I can't believe you're taking Keishin's side..." Hikaru glared at him.

"Yes, and not to mention what we did to him... We'll be lucky if nothing comes of that..."

"I'm gonna go to bed guys," Haruhi said getting to her feet she was heading to the kitchen to put away her empty glass. Honey jumped up, "I'll take that for you," he said and he reached forward to grab it from her. The moment his hand met her she jumped and dropped the mug. It cracked on the edge of the end table and fell to the ground.

Honey blinked up at her frowning. "Haru-chan, are you scared of me or something?"

"No," Haruhi answered rather quickly. "I'm sorry... Goodnight!"

With that she hurried off to her room closing the door quickly behind her.

"What was that..." Kaoru said puzzled.

"She just freaked out on Honey-senpai. Maybe that whole event traumatized her more than we thought..." Hikaru said looking concerned at the doorway she had disappeared behind.

"Not just that, did you guys see Haruhi's neck? It looked bruised... Like a hickey was there..."

"Are you sure?" Hikaru asked.

"I know what a hickey looks like," Kaoru said frowning.

Honey had picked up the broken mug and taken it to the kitchen to be thrown away.

"You don't think... Someone touched Haruhi!" Tamaki gasped and then suddenly he looked angry. "Who could have done such a thing..."

Honey came back into the room smiling.

"Oh that? That was me," Honey announced proudly.

Every one of their heads turned in disbelief in Honey's direction. "You..."

"Yup," Honey answered completely unashamed of his actions.

"Honey-senpai! Why would you do that to her!" Hikaru snapped half rising from his chair and Honey frowned. He wasn't quite sure why this was such a big deal.

"Kissing is a good technique for warming up the core body temperature," Honey answered flatly.

"That's not a technique Honey-senpai! That was... It's... It was entirely inappropriate!" Hikaru snapped.

Kyoya leaned back in his chair looking as though he would rather stay out of this one. Tamaki looked like he was going to faint. Honey-senpai... Who would have thought that Honey-senpai would have...

"Inappropriate..." Honey frowned. "No it's not. When we had survival training as kids that was one of the things that Taka... shi... taught..."

Honey turned to look at Takashi just as the twins glanced in eachother's direction. The understood then...

( # ) ( # ) ( # ) ( ) ( # )

Honey's voiced trailed away when he noticed that slowly the rest of the Host Club had begun to glare at Mori-senpai. Except for Tamaki who was looking around at everyone. Still oblivious and not quite sure what was happening. Mori sighed looking in Honey's direction. It was almost as if a silent explanation passed between the two of them as they stared at one another, and suddenly Honey frowned. A look that seemed to be a mix of having been hurt and disappointment, perhaps even a little shame crossed his face. "Oh..."

An in that single utterance Takashi turned his gaze to the floor. Honey had suddenly realized that Takashi had lied to him to selfishly get something he had wanted, and he couldn't lie that that it didn't hurt a little. Taking a deep breath and pushing his feelings aside he smiled at the group. "I'll go talk to her," he announced and turned in the direction of Haruhi's room.

"Whoa!" The twins said in unison jumping up and blocking him from entering the room. "You can't go in there."

"Huh? Why not?"

"You basically assaulted her and now you're going to enter her bedroom after she's gone to bed?"

Honey frowned... "Assulted..."

He looked down at the ground for a few seconds and then he turned heading to the door. "Takashi, stay here and keep and eye on Haru-chan."

With that he left the apartment closing the door behind him. Tamaki frowned and then hurried after him. "Honey-senpai wait up!"

Takashi exhaled leaning back in his seat he looked up at the ceiling as Tamaki too left.

"So, just how did this situation come about anyway?" The twins asked glaring at Takashi.

"When we were kids, I wanted to kiss him, I was too embarrassed to actually tell him. When Mitsukuni had fallen in a lake, he was freezing when he came out. The practice mission was to survive the night like this in the brittle winter. I kissed him, and he was embarrassed. So I told him that this was a technique to keep him warm, and to trust me. He did..."

"Well, okay, that's all well and good. But that was when you were kids," Kaoru pointed out sitting across from him.

"I don't think Honey-senpai is that oblivious that he doesn't realize people kiss for other reasons than being cold..." Hikaru said frowning.

"No of course he realizes it, he might have even realized it then. I'm not sure. But... he did believe me when I said this was a technique to help make someone warm, and I never corrected him..." Takashi frowned. "This is my fault for lying in the first place. I should have just told him how I felt."

"Okay so let's get real for a minute," Kaoru said looking serious. "Just what are you and Honey-senpai? Are you two official?"

"No," Takashi answered. "We're not."

"C'mon," Hikaru said frowning. "We're your friends. You can tell us. If you want to keep it a secret from other people fine, but at least let us know."

"Obviously you like him, and he obviously likes you. So why won't you just admit it?" Kaoru said feeling slightly annoyed with the pair of them.

"Because admitting it would be a bad pain," Takashi said frowning.

* * *


	8. Back to Japan!

Honey and Tamaki did not return for some time. When they came back the sun was starting to rise. Honey walked in carrying a bag. The twins had fallen asleep on the sofa, Kyoya was on his computer in the kitchen and Takashi had not left his seat. He did however look up when Honey came in.

"No more lies from you, got it?" Honey stated simply starting at him.

"Yes."

"Well then," he answered in a much happier voice. "Looks like that's all settled."

Honey went over to Haruhi's door knocking loud upon it. "Haru-chan!" he called waking up the twins as he did so.

She opened the door yawning. "Uh… good morning. Kind of early for you isn't it?"

Honey reached into the bag and pulled out a stuffed doggy that had the words I'm sorry, sewn into it's belly. Honey held it up in front of his face pretending as though the animal was speaking for him. "I'm sorry Haru-chan… Please forgive Honey."

Haruhi snickered a little before patting Honey's head. "Sure."

Mori immediately began to make breakfast just as Rin busted into the room holding a laptop. "Oh good you're up. Princess, your grandfather wishes to speak with you…"

She turned her computer screen around and the King was there on a video chat.

"Haruhi, may we speak in private?" the King asked.

"Uh…" Haruhi felt nervous but she nodded taking the computer from Rin she carried it into her bedroom and closed the door.

"First off, how are you? Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor at all?"

"No I'm fine," Haruhi answered immediately. "Honey-senpai and the other members of the host club saved me."

"Really?" he said frowning. "I thought it was Hasuru who saved you."

Haruhi's expression dropped into one of annoyance. "He was more harmful than helpful. So are the rest of my guards. Grandfather, listen. Can you please send Rin and the other guards home? Honey and Mori are all I really need as far as body guards go. Besides, it's just causing more problems anyway and—"

"Haruhi," the King interrupted and Haruhi stopped mid-sentence to listen.

"Your mother was not content with this sort of lifestyle either. She was at her core driven to help people. I believe this is a major part of the reason as to why she left. But while the reason for her leaving was a good and just one. I want you to think for a moment about the consequences of her actions. A Princess is a beaming light for her people. An iconic symbol that the country can rally behind in times of need. She put a great rift in our country when she left, one that has not fully healed. Our people who once looked to her for assurance and guidance now had no one. I'm not sure if you know this, but I married into the royal family. My wife, your grandmother, was the blood related heir. I married her when we were sixteen and shortly after that we had your mother. While my wife and she were blood related to the royal line I was and am not. There are many people who wish to see me give up the throne since I am not a blood relation. But you Haruhi, you are. You are the last chance this country has of keeping the blood line, that had ruled for countless generations, in power."

Haruhi frowned.

"I understand that this is a heavy burden to place on your shoulders. But I also wish for you to be happy. If you do not wish to take the throne, I will understand. I will renounce my rule and it will go to the next highest ranking family in our country. While I do not wish to guilt trip you into accepting, I want you to understand the full ramifications of your decision. The family that will take over this position is a rather cruel one, they have shown in the past that they are greedy and ruthless. The one thing they have lacked over the years is the power to make that cruelty spread. If they become the next ruling power they'll have it," he explained frowning. "This is your life Haruhi. As my granddaughter your happiness is my first concern. If you choose to not accept the throne and return to the life you once knew. Not only will I not stop you but I will wish you the very best in all you do. If however, you choose to accept. I need you to do so with the upmost seriousness. No more games, no more goofing around. You are a Princess from the moment you say "yes." There are lives at stake Haruhi, families and citizens whose livelihoods will forever be change based on your answer. So think it over carefully. I will call you back tomorrow to get your answer."

"Grandfather," Haruhi said frowning. "This other family is Keishin Ashiro correct?"

"Yes," her Grandfather nodded.

"He's been trying really hard to marry me," Haruhi explained with a slight laugh.

"Naturally," her Grandfather pointed out. "If you choose to abdicate your throne it will automatically go to his family so his family will rule anyway. The only way to stop him from being in power is for you to accept the throne and not marry him."

"So, you won't make me marry him?" Haruhi asked.

He smiled brightly, "There is not a chance in this world that I would pick him as your future husband. I told you before. I want you to be happy. You're currently dating that Suoh kid correct? If you wish it, I will choose him as your betrothed. The wedding itself can be held off a bit until you're done with school, but I need to announce that you at least have someone soon."

"But the marriage meetings…"

"Just a formality. All the potential suitors need to feel as though they had an equal chance so the public will feel effort and thought was put into choosing the future King. But I promise you Haruhi, I will not make you marry someone you do not love."

Haruhi smiled.

"I'll expect your answer tomorrow then."

"No," Haruhi said. "You can have it now. I wish to be the Princess of Kishon. But under one condition."

"Yes?" her Grandfather asked.

"I don't want these guards here anymore, Rin either. I don't need a servant. Honey and Mori are all I need to look after me."

"I can accept that. I will send them home immediately. So this means you'll take being a Princess much more seriously? You will still have to have the extra lessons and tutoring. You know that…"

"Yeah I figured that," she answered.

"Well then may I make a request of you?"

"What is it?" Haruhi asked.

* * *

Haruhi opened the door handing the closed computer back to Rin. She turned to the host club who were almost finished with cooking breakfast. She stood before them and cleared her throat.

"Everyone," she said. "I have an announcement to make. As of this moment I have officially chosen to be Princess Haruhi Fujioka Korokawa of Kishon, and I will be returning to Japan by the end of the week. There I will finish my last few years at Ouran. After which, I will officially be moving to Kishon with my Father."

Everyone blinked at her.

"Haruhi, is this what you want?" Tamaki asked half rising from his chair.

"Yeah," Haurhi answered smiling. "I had a wonderful talk with my Grandfather. We came to an arrangement and I think it is best. After all, you guys saw the state that country was in. I might really be able to do some good if I'm their Princess."

Tamaki smiled, "I'm sure you'll be a great Princess."

"Oh, and you and the guards were a part of this deal too," Haruhi explained turning to Rin. "So you will all be going home."

"Wha! You're having me sent home!" Rin gasped. Her phone beeped. She was receiving a text message. After she read it she fell to her knees. "It is true... I'm really... I understand sending the guards home but why me? Wasn't I a good servant? I thought that I… I mean… I tried so hard and…"

"Rin," Haruhi said smiling. "It's okay. You did a good job, but I'm not the kind of person who wants or needs a servant. I think you would be much happier back at your home anyway then dealing with all of us."

"It has been very stressful on me," Rin said tearfully.

"How about you have breakfast with us as a going away meal?" Haruhi asked smiling.

"Okay," Rin nodded getting to her feet and Haruhi handed her computer back to her.

So they ate breakfast, helped Rin pack and then had her and the guards on a plane home by noon. It was a wonderful feeling to see them go. But on the plane Rin had taken out her laptop and played back the recording she had secretly made of what Haruhi and the King had discussed. Then, she sent the file to the person who had told her to send him anything interesting that she might come across...

* * *

"Grandfather," Haruhi said frowning. "This other family is Keishin Ashiro correct?"

"Yes," her Grandfather nodded.

"He's been trying really hard to marry me," Haruhi explained with a slight laugh.

"Naturally," her Grandfather pointed out. "If you choose to abdicate your throne it will automatically go to his family so his family will rule anyway. The only way to stop him from being in power is for you to accept the throne and not marry him."

"So, you won't make me marry him?" Haruhi asked.

He smiled brightly, "There is not a chance in this world that I would pick him as your future husband. I told you before. I want you to be happy. You're currently dating that Suoh kid correct? If you wish it, I will choose him as your betrothed. The wedding itself can be held off a bit until you're done with school, but I need to announce that you at least have someone soon."

"But the marriage meetings…"

"Just a formality. All the potential suitors need to feel as though they had an equal chance so the public will feel effort and thought was put into choosing the future King. But I promise you Haruhi, I will not make you marry someone you do not love."

Keishin paused the screen at that point and interlaced his fingers looking at Haruhi's smiling face and the Kings contented smirk. He hated the pair of them. What was he to do now? How was he to get the throne now?

Their was a knock at the door and Hasuru announced that Keishin had a visitor.

"Who is it?" he snapped.

"She says she the Princess of Kishon..."

"Haruhi?" he gasped half rising from his chair.

"It's not, Haruhi," Hasuru said and he stepped aside to let Keishin pass. Feeling confused, he walked out to the railing of the stairs which lead to the floor he was on. Looking down their stood a girl with long chestnut brown hair.

"Who are you?" Keishin snapped staring down at her.

"Beignet Tonnerre," she called back taking out a pair of opera glasses she looked up at him. "I am... I think I am the crown Princess of Kishon."

"Tsk," he frowned walking halfway down to her. "Haruhi Fujioka is the crown Princess of Kishon..."

"But..." she frowned. "I think that... I think I might actually be..."

"Speak up!"

"Uh... sorry," she said trying to will her voice higher but she looked horribly nervous. "I am the adopted daughter of the Tonnerre family. But... I think their was a mistake..."

"A mistake?"

"Yes," she said nodding. "Haruhi Fujioka and I, were born at the same hospital on the same day. I think we were switched at birth..."

Keishin rolled his eyes. "A likely story... get this girl out of my manor," he said turning to Hasuru.

"I don't know if it's true!" she called rushing up the stairs a few steps toward him. "All I know is that my family uncovered a video tape. A Kishon rebel who despised the government was interrogated a few years back, he said... that they learned where Princess Koriko ran off to. They discovered she was pregnant, and when she had her baby they switched them at birth. Taking me so they could... Let's just say the plan was to have me killed. But the car I was put into got into an accident. All the passengers died except me. When the police came. They could not identify who my parents were, and no one came to claim me for weeks. I was sent to an orphanage where I remained until the Tonnerre family adopted me..."

Keishin frowned, that was quite a story, it sounded awfully far-fetched. Like the plot of a really bad novel, he blinked when he noticed she had suddenly started crying.

"I don't know if it's true... It might not be... It probably isn't... but that man... Ryoji Fujioka. I look so much like him, and Princess Koriko. I have her eyes. Their hers. I just know... I just... I want to know the truth, and... if I have family. I just want to know them. Princess Koriko is dead, but Ryoji Fujioka is still alive. I might have a chance to know my Father, and if he is... then I want to take it."

"The only way to prove anything you're saying is to have a DNA test done."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out a baggy with two strands of hair. "I saw Ryoji Fujioka at the Ball. I came, because I was so sure he would be there... I took this from him when I gave him a hug."

"..."

"My family refused to do the test necessary to determine it. They too thought my claim was unbelievable..."

Keishin walked down to her taking the baggy from her hand.

"Will you have the test done? Please? If it's true I just have to know, and if it's not... then it can stop consuming my every thought."

Keishin knelt down in front of her and lifted her chin with her hand. "I will do the test, but you must promise me one thing."

"Yes anything!"

"If it turns out, you are the Princess. Then you must agree to marry me," he explained.

"To have a family, a real family. Of course I will..."

"Then consider the test done."

"Thank you!" she gasped kissing his hand repeatedly, tears of joy falling from her eyes.

* * *

Haruhi did just as she promised. She returned to Japan, and their first week back was quite hectic. She went to her regular classes, but then had to have tutors from Kishion give her a good four to five more hours of lessons after every school day was done. She was practicing learning to speak Kicho, which she was taking very seriously. A Princess should speak the language of her country after all. The people at school treated her differently as well. Students who had never spoken to her before were now coming up to her and wanting to get to know her, as well as inviting her places. The twins especially found this really annoying as many of the boys would ask her in such a way that it appeared very much like flirting. Which Haruhi was almost completely oblivious to.

"Haruhi," Tamaki called to her when she was heading of for Kicho practice. "We're going to start the Host Club back up tomorrow. I expect to see you there early."

"Uh... Sorry senpai... I can't be apart of the Host Club anymore."

"What? Why?"

"Well for one thing, everyone knows I'm a girl now, and for another I just... I have way to much going on after school now. You understand..."

"Oh, yeah sure..." Tamaki said laughing slightly. "I'll see you around then, I guess..."

With that Haruhi turned and left with her tutors following her. Haruhi was wearing the yellow dress uniform of Ouran, because everyone knew now. So she couldn't get away with the school board letting her dress like a boy anymore.

"Damn," the twins chimed in together appear on either side of Tamaki. "We didn't even think about the fact that Haruhi wouldn't be able to be in the host club anymore..."

"Well, we still have everyone else," Tamaki said dishearteningly. "So it'll be just like old times. Before Haruhi arrived..."

"Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai won't be here either..." the Kyoya said coming up behind him.

"What!?" Tamaki snapped. "But their university is close by and Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai said that they would still come over!"

"Well," Kyoya sighed closing the book he was holding. "Honey-senpai is now Princess Haruhi's right hand and that means when she moves to Kishon he is going with her. So he as well as been studying Kicho with her and learning the culture as well as training extremely hard to be a good guard for her. He simply doesn't have the time for club activities. As far as Mori-senpai goes he will be staying at Honey-senpai's side for almost all of his free time."

"Then, it's just the four of us."

"No," Kyoya said. "It's just the two of them."

"What!?" the twins exclaimed together looking shocked.

"That is if you guys want to of course..."

"Why just the two of them?" Tamaki asked frowning.

"We are seniors this year," Kyoya pointed out. "We need to be thinking of our futures and decide what universities we're going to."

"Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai stayed in the club when they were seniors."

"Yes, well that was their choice. Personally, I think it would be best that we all look to our futures a bit more and—"

"NO!" Tamaki snapped. "A club is like a family! I don't want ours to fall apart. Until Haruhi and Honey-senpai leave, we should all continue participating in the Host Club."

"Didn't you want to marry Haruhi?" Kyoya asked calmly.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I still plan to win her Grandfather over and marry her as well. To compete with me as far as being a potential King, I really think you should be studying and training your mind as much as you can as well..."

"Kyoya..." Tamaki blinked.

"I don't want to win this little game simply because you didn't try. If your want to be King then you can be, but I won't go down without a fight."

"I don't want to be King," Tamaki said frowning. "I want to be Haruhi's husband... that's all..."

"...either way, her Grandfather will never choose you at the level you're currently at... Thus you need to be studying and working hard. So that leaves only the twins to be in the Host Club."

"We're not going to be in it if it's just the two of us," Hikaru snapped.

"Yeah, that's pretty boring," Kaoru sighed.

"...then... it's over..."

Kyoya walked over placing his hand on Tamaki's shoulder. "You didn't really think we were all going to participate in the Host Club forever? Did you?"

"I guess..." Tamaki said forcing a smile on his face. "I guess I kind of did..."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all like this latest chapter. We're finally starting to get into the actual part of the story that I've been wanting to write for some time. But I had to get all this filler stuff out of the way first. :D
> 
> Anyway, here it is! Review if you liked it!


	9. The Hectic life of a Princess to be...

Haruhi had not had a life more stressful than the one she experienced that week, and she was including all the shit that had happened in America. She had her regular classes once again, and Honey-senpai would join her at Ouran for Kisho language lessons after her regular classes. Which took an additional two hours out of her study time. Then her Dad (overjoyed to have her back home) insisted they spend more time together so every weekend that she wanted to use to catch up on all her work he took her out to various places. She didn't see the need for all this commotion. She wasn't actually moving to Kishon until she graduated, and that was going to be a few years yet.

Worst of all however, was the new popularity she seemed to have acquired from now being a Princess. Students who barely knew her were suddenly asking to have her join them on their families' trips. Boys she barely remembered from class were flirting with her and that made the twins rather angry.

While Ouran was well guarded from paparazzi (for obvious reasons), her little apartment home was not. Their were constantly reporters surrounding her door and attempting to take pictures of her. They would even follow her on her outings with her Dad (though he tried very hard to disguise them both) but she thinks he was more excited about the putting on costumes part. They were always found out even when they tried to sneak out a back window.

Even though Honey asked her to text him whenever she was planning to go anywhere, she rarely did. But she knew he would be mad if she found out she was going out without an escort as many times as she would.

One particular day she lost her Dad in the crowd at an amusement park he had been dying to take her to and unfortunately it was almost the same moment when the press spotted her and swarmed.

"Princess Haruhi!"

"Can we have a word your highness?"

"Whaaa!" She took off running. She had been in the US for a while after the announcement was made. Why hadn't the US press become this annoying. She was grateful they hadn't acted this way then, but it still confused her. As she was running around a corner someone grabbed her wrist pulling her into a small closet. She blinked looking up, and Kyoya was standing there.

"Wha! Kyoya-senpai."

"Shhh," he put a finger to his lips to silence her. He opened the door ever so slightly and peeked through.

The press hurried by. When they were out of sight he opened the door for her. "Your highness..."

"Please don't call me that..." she sighed exhaling.

"Kyoya! We had a whole strategy!" Tamaki yelled rushing over. "You completely ruined what we were setting up!"

"The Princess needed help now, we didn't have time to wait for one of your fool hearty plans."

"My plan was not fool hearty!" Tamaki snapped.

"Hi Haru-chan!" Honey smiled running up to her. "You didn't text me I see..."

She frowned, but he didn't look mad. Unknown to her, usually he or Mori would be tailing her at all times regardless of her texting.

"Yeah, sorry..." she answered nervously.

Haruhi glanced around, everyone was there...

"There you are Haruhi!" her father gasped running over. "I turned around for one second and you were gone..."

"Sorry Dad."

"Well," Tamaki exclaimed loudly to get her attention. "What a coincidence that we all ended up here on the same day..."

"What did you guys do? Follow me?"

"Of course not!" Tamaki answered.

Hikaru cleared his throat took out a note card and began to read directly from it in a horribly monotone voice, "We just happened to be in the area."

Kaoru took out a similar card and read in the same tone. "Who knew you would be here today. Of all days."

"The very day that we had all made plans to go to the amusement park together," Mori read his line from a card as well. It felt awkward hearing Mori say so many words in one sentence.

"Plans which we made months ago," Honey read from another but he sounded like his normal cheerful-self.

"Well," Kyoya said pulling out his own card. "Since we are all together. We might as well have fun. Here. At the amusement park."

"AHHH!" Tamaki had looked more and more upset each time one of them read from these cards. "I told you guys to memorize your lines before you got here! After all the acting we did at the Host Club you're telling me you couldn't memorize a few lousy lines!"

He seemed to mostly be looking at the twins when he said this.

"We told you these lines were ridiculous," Kaoru said frowning.

"And that they didn't sound natural at all," Hikaru added.

"They would have if you had memorized them like I asked!"

Haruhi suddenly started laughing, "Man, I forgot how crazy you all get when you're together. Especially you Tamaki-senpai."

Then without really thinking she added, "I sure miss the Host Club..."

Everyone froze at that line, and their gazes slowly turned in Tamaki's direction who had a rather sad expression on his face. "So..." Tamaki said breaking the awkward silence at last. "If we're going to have a day of fun with Haruhi then we should start now..."

"Yeah!"

"Let's get to it."

"Haru-chan, let's go on the Ferris wheel!"

"I kinda wanted to ride through the Haunted House," Hikaru imputed.

They had all burst into conversation suddenly, and began heading off to wherever they were going. Her father stood there, having been left behind...

"Well," he sighed suddenly thinking to himself. _I supposed she can spend today with her friends. I'll always be her father, but their little group won't always be together..._

"I'll be at home Haruhi!" he called. She had just enough time to glance back and see him wave before he headed off.

They managed to ride a few rides before they were spotted by reporters once again and had to out run them. So Honey insisted that Haruhi wear a disguise if they were going to continue to run around the amusement park with the paparazzi all about. So they took her to a small costume shop getting her a blonde wig, glasses, and a uniform from an unknown school. She did indeed look quite different when she was done.

"You're so cute Haru-chan!" Honey said cheerfully when she emerged from the girl's bathroom with the clothes they had purchased. Everyone else was dressed differently when she came out as well that way none of them would be recognized.

"This is great!" Tamaki said smiling. "You don't look like Haruhi at all. Now we can all have a wonderful day and not be bothered!"

"Let's ride the Cavern Coaster!" Honey said cheerfully, and so they all went there. It was the next ride on Tamaki's list for he had planned out the whole day. Tamaki and Haruhi sat side by side at the very front of the ride. Honey and Mori, just behind them. The twins in the next set of seats.

Unknown to any of them two men a good distance away were watching the scene with binoculars.

"She sat in seat 2 boss," said one of them into a two way radio transceiver.

"Good, stop the coaster at the top of the third twist and drop her..." said the man on the other end.

"Understood."

The second man grinned pulling his computer close to him waiting...

* * *

It was a pretty fun ride, Kaoru and Tamaki freaked out on the ride. Haruhi ended up having to hold Tamaki's hand to calm him down. It was a ll good and fun until it started going around the twist loops until all at once the ride came to a hault with them upside down. Everyone sat there confused, a few girls in the back started to scream fearfully.

Honey turned to Mori looking confused, "Is this part of the ride?"

Just as he asked that the drop down harness that went over Haruhi's torso shot open and she began falling immediately. But the tiniest stroke of luck she grabbed the metal bar that had been in front of her stopping her fall. The screaming increased from the people in back. The onlookers from the ground were causing a commotion as well.

"HARUHI!" Tamaki gasped leaning forward he grabbed her wrist in case she slipped and let go of the bar. Her wig had fallen off from the jolt.

Honey and Mori were trying to pop their own harnesses off, but their mechanisms didn't seem to be malfunctioned as Haruhi's clearly had been.

"Oh forget this," Honey frowned after his fourth attempt to get the harness to unlatch. He twisted himself around until he could pull his feet through and he was loose from it. Honey however, was the only one small enough to manage this. Which was probably because he only barely passed the minimum height restriction needed to ride. Honey hung down from his bar just as Haruhi was doing.

"Pretty crazy ride huh?" he asked her smiling, and she got the feeling he was trying to calm her down. She was feeling rather panicked, the ride itself hadn't scared her, but dangling harness-free high above the ground certainly did. Honey maneuvered so he was hanging from the same railing she was. "Have you ever been mountain climbing Haruh-chan?" he asked as he took out what appeared to be a bungee cord.

She stared at him wondering why on Earth he had thought to bring a bungee cord to an amusement park, but then she remembered Honey and Mori always had some kinds of trinkets on them. Like shuriken and fighting sticks. Why should she be surprised he would have that?

"This is a similar wire to the ones they use to descend mountains," he explained calmly. Meanwhile her hands were hurting terribly. She looked up to Tamaki's panicked expression, he was still clinging to her wrist tightly just in case she let go.

* * *

"What is that brat... Oh..." said the first thug looking through his binoculars. "That must be that Mitsukuni brat that pledged his hands to her... Well, I don't think the boss will be too upset about a second death do you?"

The other guy grinned.

"Start the coaster up again..."

"Yes Sir."

* * *

"Okay Haru-chan, put your arm around my shoulders okay," Honey said after he had gotten everything set up.

She shook her head. _Was he nuts_?

"Haru-chan, I've done stuff like this hundreds of times. It'll be okay. Put one arm around my neck, and once you feel you have a good grasp bring the other one."

Tentatively, Haruhi let one hand release the bar and instantly all the pain in that hand went into the one still clinging. She genuinely didn't think she could hang on much longer with that one hand so she hurriedly reached over wrapping the free arm around honey. She let go of the bar the same time Tamaki let go of her wrist, and she clung to Honey tightly.

"See, not so bad," he said. After a few clicks from the contraption he has set up above them they slowly started gliding down the rope as though they were electrically being lowered, but she doubted that was the case.

Then, to everyone's horror the roller coaster started going again. Their was not much time to react here, they were about to slam into one of the many pillars that was holding up the roller coaster. "Close your mouth and shut your eyes!" Honey ordered, just before her eyes closed, she saw him take out a blade, and he reached up to cut the line.

The rest of the Host Club could do nothing... They watched Haruhi and Honey disappear from view as they zoomed by going through loop after loop, they fell down the scariest drop of the ride and zoomed around a few more curves. The realization that their two friends had fallen from the ride made rest of the ride horrifying. Mori had never regretted his height more than in this moment. Had he been small like Honey, he could have been helping. Slowly it slowly pulled back into the station. The guy manning the ride was shocked when it pulled up and two people were missing. Tamaki and the others didn't have time to explain to him. They all jumped out the second the harnesses popped open, and rushed for the place where they thought they might have landed.

* * *

Honey let out a low whistle. They had (with an unbelievable amount of luck) landed in large brush pile under the coaster. The coaster had not picked up quiet enough speed to send them flying too far. So other than being a bit sore from the landing and a bit cut from the pointy twigs they had fallen into, they were fine.

"He he he," Honey laughed. "Believe it or not that was my first roller coaster ride..."

"Ay... Really?" Haruhi asked. She was a bit worried about moving. So far nothing hurt too bad, but she was worried that if she started getting up she might find out something was broken. "Bet you'll never ride one again..."

"Hhmmm," he smiled. "Are you kidding? I wanna ride another one..."

Haruhi looked over at him, he was smiling brightly despite the two of them having literally almost died... Honey tucked his arms behind his head and and stared up at the sky smiling.

"Why are you so happy?" Haruhi asked after she sat up and realized she wasn't injured too bad after all.

"We lived," Honey answered. "Wouldn't that make anyone happy?"

"Well, yeah... but..."

He placed his hand on his heart. "Feel your heart Haru-chan... Do you know why it's beating so hard?"

"Yeah, cause we almost died," Haruhi answered putting a hand on her chest like Honey was doing.

"Uh-uh..." he shook his head. "People are in love with their lives, and when you come this close to losing it, it beats like this the moment you're reunited with it. In a split second you're told you'll never have it again, and the next moment it's back and it's so happy to see you that your heart is just overjoyed. And when hearts are happy, they play the drums really loud."

"..." Haruhi stared at him. "I guess that's a cute way to look at it."

Honey closed his eyes tapping his chest lightly in rhythm with his heart, and he whispered, "Bum. Bum. Bum. Bum."

Haruhi smiled at him. How someone could be this adorable and yet that badass at the same time she didn't know.

"HARUHI!"

"HONEY!"

She turned seeing the whole gang rush over, smiling she got to her feet feeling her heart beat just a tad bit faster when Tamaki rushed over and hugged her. "I was so scared are you okay?"

"Yeah, somehow we managed to land in the brush, so we're okay," she explained as he started pulling burs and small twigs from her hair and dress.

Honey didn't move until Takashi ran up. He never even opened his eyes but knew he was there and held out his hand so Takashi could pull him out of the brush pile. Takashi knelt down and hugged him. It wasn't until they embraced that Honey opened his eyes.

* * *

"Damn it! The boss is gonna kill us!" one of the thugs stated angrily. "Seriously how did you mess this up!"

"Me!" The other one snapped as he stuffed his computer back into his bag. "I did everything right. If that stupid brat hadn't been there, she would be dead for sure."

"Seriously!" The first groaned. "How hard is it to kill one girl!"

Suddenly his phone started ringing and he picked it up putting it to his ear. "Uh... yes?"

"Is the girl dead?" asked the man on the other line.

"Uh... no... Boss we're really sorry! That short kid got in the way again!"

"Fortunately for you, killing Haruhi Fujioka is no longer necessary..." the voice said softly.

"Uh... It's not?"

"No. You two have done well, you're dismissed..."

With that the phone hung up, and the two men looked at one another. "We're dismissed... what does that mean..."

Blood suddenly splattered from the first man's forehead, and and explosion of blood came out the back of the second man's head. They had been shot with the same bullet. Quite a ways away using a sniper rifle. Hasuru stood up frowning. "No need to kill the Princess anymore when the Princess has promised to marry my Master..." he grinned. "But I still can't leave any witnesses..."

With that he put his gun in a large music case so he could walk down the street with it and not stand out.

* * *

They all went home after such a terrible fright. Hikaru and Kaoru didn't want to go in the Haunted house anymore anyway, and the host club escorted Haruhi home. What happened at the amusment park had not been an accident, just like all the things that had happened in America. So as usual, Mori and Honey took turns scoping out her house. After a good number of days with no incident. They set up hidden cameras and sensors around her apartment (without her knowledge).

On one particular evening when Honey was outside taking a break from training he heard his Mother call to him.

"Honey bunny?"

She walked over to him smiling. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Honey answered.

"Are you sure? You don't look it..." she sat down beside him. "How are your Kicho lessons coming?"

"They're okay," he admitted. "Language isn't really my strong suit. I'm more of a numbers person, but that just means I need to study harder."

"I'm sure you'll learn it in no time. You've always been such a good student."

She looked down at her feet for a few seconds before turning back to him. "So... after Haruhi's final year, you'll be moving to Kishon. Are you excited?"

"I guess," Honey answered.

"I'll mail you cookies and cakes every week. So... so you won't forget your Mama..."

Honey blinked turning to her. "Don't be silly," he said smiling. "I'd never forget you Mama-san."

He suddenly noticed her eyes were filled with tears. "Ma..."

"Oh, look at me. I'm being so silly. We still have so much time before you move and here I am acting like it's happening tomorrow," she said wiping her eyes. "I... I always knew you would move away someday Honey bunny. I guess, when I imagined it. I thought of you moving to a different district or going somewhere a few miles away... Kishon is... Kishon is just so far."

"Mama-san," Honey smiled trying to cheer her up. "It doesn't matter how far away I move. Kids don't stop being their parent's children just because they've moved away. Besides, I'll always come and see you whenever you want me to. That's a promise!"

"Well," she smiled taking his hand. "That does make me feel better..."

She still looked rather sad, and Honey frowned.

"Well, I have to stop this. We have ages before you're leaving. Ages and ages..." wiped her eyes before heading back to her room.

* * *

A few days later Honey had asked Mori to come see him, which he of course he did. When he opened the door to Honey's room, he was sitting dojo style on the floor looking very serious. His bunny was sitting on the floor in front of him in a large kettle. Mori sat in the same way across from him remaining silent until Honey spoke.

"I've decided it's time Takashi," he said softly. "My focus needs to be on my tasks and Haruhi right now. I don't have time to nor do I want to harbor this pain any longer..."

Takashi frowned.

"We're going to destroy Usa-chan together, and in turn, our love along with it..." Honey said seriously.

"You still have a few years before you'll be leaving... Why so soon?"

"... We're both in college now," Honey said. "It won't be long before your family starts pestering you to find a wife and settle down. Have some children..."

"..."

"I told you that I would carry Usa-chan around until I no longer loved you, and though you made me stop carrying around so much since college started, I think... I think it would be best to just quit it cold turkey... You know like people do with any vices they find it hard to quit..."

Takashi felt a sinking in his chest as Honey got out a book of matches.

"After today we're not going to speak to each other informally, and we will no longer be friends. You will not come over my house without prior notification first, and you will not... You will not be my servant anymore. Understood?"

"..."

Taking his silence to mean yes, Honey lit the match, which Takashi immediately blew out.

Frowning, Honey lit a new match, and again, Takashi blew it out.

The third match he purposely tried to block from Takashi, but with some manuvering he managed to blow that one out too before it reached Usa-chan. Didn't Takashi understand that this was already hard enough for him without him blowing out the match every time. "TAKASHI!" Honey snapped furiously.

Takashi suddenly lunged forward pushing him back on the ground by his wrists he kissed him before pulling back slowly to stare into his eyes. "You have... at least two years before you have to go anywhere. Don't carry it anymore, don't think about it, pack it away if you have to... But don't destroy it..."

Releasing his wrists he wrapped his arms around Honey's torso. "Let our love exist..."

Honey sighed running his fingers through Takashi's hair as the two laid together on his bedroom floor.

"I'm a better man for it having existed... So don't pretend like we never happened..."

"Takashi," Honey frowned. "Okay Takashi... I won't destroy it..."

Honey wasn't sure how long they laid their for, just holding each other. Honey was a little unnerved by this. They had always said that the day they no longer loved one another that they would destroy that silly bunny... If Takashi didn't ever want to destroy it... Did that mean he just wanted them to secretly be in love forever? While they both went on to separate lives and started separate families?

Honey wanted to destroy it. It was a bad pain to love Takashi, because the worst sort of pain was the kind that no matter what you tried to do, you couldn't stop it.

Like when a loved one is dying and you keep sending them to Dr. after Dr. hoping the next one will tell you otherwise, and all you're doing is hurting your heart more by pretending that you can save them. The longer you try and fight it, the more it hurts when the inevitable happens and you fail... Because you worked so hard to stop what was always meant to be. And that was a bad pain...

When you're a fighter like they were, you are told their is good pain and bad pain. Some pain you experience while fighting is good because it helps you grow and overcome, to be better the next time around. Other pain is bad and could injure you further if you try and continue training with certain injuries. It was one of the first lessons you learned when beginning your fighting journey. But Honey had come to use the phrase in everyday life to explain pursuits that wouldn't ever succeed.

They had both been pursuing a love that could never be, and knowing full well they would never be together, they had chosen to love each other anyway. The longer they tried to make this work the more it would hurt when the inevitable happens and they had to part...

So why couldn't they destroy the bunny? It would be a clean break, a quick pain, and it would be over. But maybe it really was a bit of his foolish childishness that genuinely believed that destroying this toy would put a stop to any feeling he had for his childhood friend.

Honey did not destroy the bunny as he had asked but Takashi was quite surprised when Honey came over the next morning, carrying it under his arm...

* * *

The following day, the Press had a new headline:

**HARUHI THE HUSTLER!**   
_The Princess of Kishon is an Imposter!_

"What the hell," Kyoya frowned sitting down at his computer he opened the article quickly and read...


	10. HARUHI THE HUSTLER!

Haruhi and Tamaki had had a breakfast date night that morning. Her overseeing and slightly annoying servants hadn't pestered her about anything that morning. Not about her lessons or studying. The driver that had started taking her to school didn't even show up. She didn't particularly mind, she just figured maybe this was a Kishon holiday that she wasn't aware of. So Tamaki had picked her up and taken her to school. They were walking (not purposefully) by the old host club room when they noticed the door had been left ajar.

"Huh, who could be in there?" Tamaki walked forward opening the door and saw the entire host club sitting together and speaking in low voices. They stopped talking the moment he walked in and he flicked on the light. "Guys, what are you all..."

As a pleasant surprise Honey and Mori were there, dressed in normal clothes since they weren't students anymore. But they all looked kind of disheartened.

"What's up?" Haruhi asked frowning slightly.

"Have you seen the news this morning?" Kyoya asked sternly.

"No..." she admitted and he placed a copy of the mornings paper in her hands. She was headline news.

**HARUHI THE HUSTLER!**

_The Princess of Kishon is an Imposter!_

Haruhi quickly skimmed it to get the gist of what the paper was saying and then she lowered it looking up at the sad faces of the Host Club.

"Oh c'mon guys don't look so glum. I mean. I wasn't really cut out to be a Princess anyway. Besides, I'm sure whoever they found will do a much better job than me."

"Haruhi," Kaoru said tentatively. He stopped talking though unable to say what he wanted.

Kyoya picked up from there, "Haruhi, if this turns out to be true. Then that means you were switched at birth. Your Mother and your Father... They aren't yours..."

Haruhi hadn't got far enough into the article to realize they had been switched, but she pulled the paper back to her eyes and read the paragraph at the end that said it is believed that the babies were mistakenly switched in the hospital since they were born on the same day and roughly the same time.

"But... I..." she suddenly realized that this was the reason why everyone looked so sad.

"I mean... If that is the case then... My Dad is always going to be my Dad. No paper or nothing as little as being switched at birth is going to change that fact," she explained defiantly. Almost as if trying to convince herself.

"Haruhi," Kyoya reached forward and hugged her. This threw Tamaki off a bit and he looked around at everyone as though asking, _what the hell is he doing_?

"It'll be okay," Kyoya said softly. "I will look into this as well. You don't need to worry."

"Uh... okay," she answered somewhat awkwardly. It wasn't likey Kyoya to hug anyone, let alone her. He broke their embrace and even smiled at her.

"Tamaki why don't you take Haruhi home, I think she probably needs to speak with her Dad about this..."

"...Oh gosh Dad!" Haruhi gasped. "Yeah, I should talk to him before he hears about it."

She grabbed Tamaki's hand hurrying out the door. It wasn't like her to skip school, but this was important.

The rest of the host club watched her go and Kyoya removed a handkerchief from his pocket and place the few strands of Haruhi's hair that he had collected during their hug into it.

"So, that will tell you for sure if Haruhi is the Princess?" Hikaru asked frowning slightly.

"Well, it'll tell me for sure if she's really related to her Father. I'll need some hair strands from this other Princess as well if I'm to be 100% sure."

"Their doing their own DNA testing aren't they?" Honey asked. "Why do you need to do one as well."

"It's quite possible that they would tamper with it just to get someone else in line for the throne. If I do one as well, we'll be twice as sure of the result."

"I really hope she's the Princess," Kaoru frowned. "I mean, it would suck to lose her whole family just like that..."

"As Haruhi said," Kyoya pointed out. "Her Father is not going to stop being her father over something like this. He still raised Haruhi from a baby, and blood relation or not that's a pretty strong bond there. Regardless of the result he is still going to be her Father. All this test will determine is if he gets another daughter or not."

"So, that's it then..." Hikaru urged as if asking what they were all supposed to do now.

"Not quite. I need to talk to you four about something..." with that he walked over and made sure the door to the Host Club room was securely closed.

* * *

"Hello!"

When Haruhi had opened the door to her and her Father's apartment she found Beignet sitting across the table from him. She glanced up and saw Hasuru in the corner and she jumped backing up a step. Which was nothing compared to how Tamaki reacted actually calling out, "Shit it's him!"

She hadn't liked the man since the day he had hurt Honey so badly but to just randomly see him in her home...

"Don't mind him, he's been selected to be my temporary body guard, at least until we get this whole mess sorted out," she said getting to her feet. She walked over to Haruhi holding out her hand. "Hello, it seems I might be your Father's daughter..."

Haruhi awkwardly reached out and shook it back.

"Both of you sit down for a minute," her Dad ordered and they did. Tamaki sat against the wall not wanting to impose. "Regardless of the results we'll receive in the coming days, Haruhi is my daughter. That will never change."

"Oh course Father," Beignet nodded smiling.

Haruhi glanced at her sideways. She had her Father's hair. It was the exact color... But her eyes weren't his. They did look like her Mother's though, but then again, brown eyes were very common. She had brown eyes and as it turns out she might not be her Mother's daughter after all.

"If it turns out that Beignet is my daughter, then I want you two to get along and be friendly, understood?"

"Yes Father," she answered again.

"..." he sighed. "Now, I don't want to be rude, but I would like some time to speak alone with Haruhi."

"Of course, I understand completely," she said getting to her feet. Hasuru did so as well. "Well Haruhi, here is hoping we'll be sisters soon..."

With that she and Hasuru left the apartment closing the door softly behind him.

Her Father looked over at her. "Haruhi... I don't know what to say. But please understand. This will change nothing. You're still our child regardless of the results. The memories you and Mama have and the memories you have with me are still valid and important."

"I know Dad," she said smiling. "You don't need to tell me twice. I'm a Fujioka regardless of the results."

He walked around the table and hugged her. It felt... strange. For the first time, she knew the man she was hugging might not actually be her Father, and she felt her heart ache slightly. Tamaki didn't know what to say or do. He almost wanted to cry for her since it was very obvious that Haruhi was trying to be much stronger than she felt. But he knew one thing for sure. He loved Haruhi Fujioka before he knew she was a Princess, and he would love her regardless if the results showed she was a Princess or not...

* * *

Kyoya had made a special trip to see Beignet when she was in town. He went under the guise of trying to secure her hand in marriage if the results turned out that she was indeed the Princess. She smugly but politely refused saying she already had someone in mind. Not wanting to press the matter further. He hugged her, and whispered in her ear, "You're making a big mistake."

The cryptic warning hadn't really been about the fact that she refused to marry him, but she had no way of knowing that. He then released her and left the restaurant she was in, he placed the hair sample he collected from her in another handkerchief. He had already had one of his servants get some hair strands from Haruhi's father the other day. He had all the pieces to the puzzle now. He just had to connect them...

* * *

The results came in and it got plastered all over the news. Haruhi was not the heir.

But the Host Club didn't care about their results. They cared about Kyoya's results since it was the only results they trusted.

The host club (excluding Haruhi and Tamaki, because they didn't know they had arranged this) gathered in the old Host Club room once again.

"Well?" Hikaru asked nervously.

"It's what we thought..."

"Shit," Kaoru scoffed looking away.

"So we're really just going to let this happen. I mean..."

"We all agreed the other day. It would be what's best for everyone," Kyoya explained.

"Haru-chan will be safer this way," Honey said softly. "Not being a Princess... Whoever was trying to kill her will stop now, she'll be safer."

"Yeah, but... Damn it, I wish it hadn't turned out like this!" Hikaru snapped angrily and Kaoru put a consoling hand on his shoulder.

"I asked Haruhi and Tamaki to arrive here shortly after us. We can tell her the results."

"She probably already read the paper," Hikaru snapped angrily.

"Yes, but like you all, my results will be more trustworthy to her," Kyoya pointed out.

Withing seconds of his finishing the sentence the door opened and Haruhi and Tamaki walked in. They both looked upset.

"So it turns out..." she frowned. "I'm not my Dad's daughter after all."

Kyoya grabbed one of the two manila folders on the desk behind him. "Haruhi, I did my own dna test to make sure the others weren't tampering with the results."

"And..." she looked hopeful for only the briefest of moments, but it returned to normal upon seeing his expression. "I see..."

"I just, didn't want you to be wondering the rest of your life," Kyoya explained. "Do you want to see it?"

She shook her head no. "Seeing the paperwork won't change anything. I think I'm going to go home and spend some time with my Dad. Just us..."

With that she turned looking miserable as she headed out the door.

"Haruhi wait!" Hikaru called rushing forward but Kyoya held out a hand to stop him.

"Don't!" he warned.

"Ugh," Hikaru spun around to Tamaki who hadn't moved since he arrived at that spot. "Shouldn't you be going after her?"

"Right now..." Tamaki said softly. "I think she really wants to be alone. Nothing I say or do will make any difference."

* * *

The days started passing in a blur for Haruhi. Not unlike the days following her Mother's death and before she knew it, it was time for Princess Beignet's coronation party. Her Father was expected to go, and she wasn't going to let him go alone, and the Host Club wasn't going to let Haruhi be there without them. So they were all taking one last flight to Kishon.

The coronation was beautiful. Her Father stood up next to Beignet and her... well... Beignet's Grandfather placed the crown on her head. Later her Father danced with Beignet and that hurt a lot more than Haruhi was willing to admit. Almost as if to distract her Tamaki asked her to dance at the same time and she agreed. It was a decent night, but honestly she wasn't too sad. She was the one going home with her Father, and Beignet would remain here in Kishon. Most likely they wouldn't really even see one another except maybe holidays. All in all, she felt she had the better end of the deal. She didn't have to be a Princess and her Dad was still her Dad. Everything would be okay, she was sure of it.

Her Dad headed out at the end of the coronation because he had to work the next morning, but Haruhi and the others were remaining until the following day because that's when their flight was leaving. They were allowed to stay in the manor since Haruhi was (if nothing else) the adopted sister of the Princess. Come the next morning everyone was in high spirits and ready to go home.

As they were heading to the exit Beignet appeared at the top of the stairs smiling. "I'm glad you could come sister," she said smiling. "Please do visit me again."

"Uh... sure," Haruhi said and they exchanged a tense hug.

Beignet turned back ascending the step half way before she turned back. They were already almost to the door.

"Wait a moment," she said. "Honey, where are you going?"

Honey looked back at her looking slightly confused. "I'm going home, with my friends."

"But..." and she put on the fakest expression of confusion Haruhi had ever seen. "But aren't you supposed to stay here?"

"Why would I stay here?" he asked holding Usa-chan close to him. Everyone was looking around at one another confused.

What was she playing at?

"I thought Hasaru told me that you pledged your hands to the daughter of Princess Koriko Tokari Korokawa, and well... that's me now."

"Well, I said that when I thought Haru-chan was the Princess, sorry."

With that he turned back heading towards the door again.

"I see... So this is how you want the Haninozuka name to be remembered? That they're disloyal and they lie?" she was staring at her nails and looked up at Honey the moment she finished speaking, as if knowing those words would get to him.

Honey froze mid step upon hearing it and he turned to look at her. His glare was terrifying. Slits for eyes only just visible in the shade of his bangs. Almost as though he had realized the face he was making he smiled. "You're right," he said cheerfully.

"Honey-sempai," Kaoru frowned. "You're not really going to stay are you?"

"A promise is a promise," he explained smiling a smile that didn't look at all happy. "I pledged my hands to the eldest daughter of Princess Koriko Tokari Korokawa. Not Haruhi. If she no longer fits that description, then she is not the one I should be serving..."

"But you said that when you thought it was Haruhi!" Tamaki snapped. "So, can't their be an exception?"

Honey began walking back towards the steps, with them all lined up on either side of him it felt almost like he were walking the green mile.

"Honey-senpai it's not okay, I'm sure your family won't care!" Haruhi snapped. "I'll tell them it's my fault. They can blame me. Just come home with us, I'll talk to your Dad and-"

"I should have worded it differently Haru-chan," Honey explained stopping briefly before her. "This is no one's fault but mine."

He kept walking again and this time Kyoya spoke up, though he was looking a Beignet. "You're not taking him. You're-"

"Hush Kao-chan," Honey interrupted in a borderline dangerous sounding voice. Kyoya opened his mouth to speak when Honey added, "Not another word from you."

He stopped again right beside Mori.

"Takashi, here," he handed Usa-chan to him. "Look after everyone in my absence. You can do whatever you want with Usa-chan. I don't... I don't need him anymore."

"Mitsukini," Takashi began reaching a hand out towards him.

"Bye Takashi," Honey responded quickly and turned on his heel before Takashi's outstretched hand had reached out to him.

Honey fell to one knee before Beignet and smiling she descended the stairs stopping right before him. "You'll be the loveliest weapon in my arsenal."

"But every army needs a plan B," she said softly side stepping him. Her heels clicked as she headed over towards Mori. Honey understood in an instant what she intended to do. And he would not let her.

Honey said something incoherent. Something that sounded not unlike ancient Japanese. He said it just low enough for them to hear, but Beignet seemed to have missed it. Whatever the word had meant however, it made Mori's expression appear as though he had just been told someone dear to him had died.

"Honey my faithful servant, order Takashi to stay her too."

"Sorry," Honey answered without getting to his feet. "Takashi isn't my servant anymore."

"Ugh, liar! You have to do what I say. You pledged your hands to me!"

"He's not my—"

"Since when?"

"Since about ten seconds ago," he answered.

"Uh," she frowned. "Well, maybe Takashi will stay here of his own accord... Huh? How about it? You'll get to remain with your best friend Honey."

"I will be returning home." It sounded as though it pained him greatly to say that, and Haruhi thought she knew why. He had already been given an order by Honey to watch over them all. He would probably have preferred death then to disobey the last order Honey had given him.

"Tsk, whatever," she spat, all gentleness gone from her voice. She spun back around and gave a command to one of the servants standing at the wall. "These children are no longer welcome here. Send them home and put them on the no fly list back!"

"Yes your highness," the servant answered and we walked forward ushering them all to leave.

She looked over her shoulder, "But of course you're welcome dear Sister."

Haruhi tried to rush forward but a few more servants came out darn near pushing them to the exit.

"Come along Honey," Beignet demanded.

He stood up slowly to follower her up the staircase, and he didn't turn back once to look at them, even as they called his name while they were in the process of being shoved out the door. No one called louder or more desperately than Kaoru, but Haruhi, Tamaki, and Hikaru were all screaming for him as well. Begging him to just turn around, just come back. Just go home with them. Haruhi didn't realize this until later, but Mori too had turned his back and not looked once in Honey's direction as he left the building.

* * *


End file.
